Digimon Defenders
by DayDreamer9
Summary: Eight kids in America have been chosen to become 'Digimon Tamers'. But why, and who chose them? And why are 'Digimon' invading the Real World? Please R&R!
1. A New Adventure

Digimon Defenders  
  
Disclaimer: Hey Tamer Fans! This is DayDreamer9 bringing you a redone and modified 'Digimon Defenders'. I'll be changing some of the characters and fixing the dates and surroundings to keep up with the times.  
  
I'll have a calendar and a 'clock' in every chapter to let you know what's happening and when (some fics do that). I'd like to thank the authors; 'The Dark Tamer,' 'Infinity Blade', 'Godeerc Creedog', 'Debbie(Dai-chan)', 'Arek the Absolute', 'Lobo Kendo', and 'Pyrogirl123,'who's fics have inspired me to write this one . I'm also a big fan of 'Senkaiden Houshin Engi' a.k.a. 'Soul Hunter' and a friend of mine owns a site (with a Nataku Shrine and lots of Raishinshi pictures).  
  
Why did I tell you that? Because some of my digimon characters' levels are based off of characters from that show. I aim on keeping the 'Card Slash' sequence and I plan on introducing crests in as well. . Also check out my 'Angelic Layer' fic, 'My Angel Story.'  
  
Now for the legal stuff: I don't own digimon, it's property of Toei Animations and Saban (I think it still is). The only things I own are the kids, the crests, and the kids' partner digimon. Now that that's done, on with the fic!  
  
Chapter 1: A New Adventure  
  
February 6, 2004- Friday, 6:15 PM  
  
Twelve-year old Gina Miller was bushed. Not just from school itself, but from school and homework all together. She had just spent an hour and a half on her Math homework, twenty minutes on her Reading assignment, and the last ten minutes checking her Math problems. As if solving equations wasn't hard enough, these were equations where you had to multiply and divide to get the answer, and unfortunately Gina wasn't a Math person. She'd happily take Language Arts over Algebra any day. Unfortunate for her, the school didn't grant that notion, and she was stuck in Algebra.  
  
She enjoyed school, she didn't really have anything against it, but when 'A Days' came she was grumpy for the first half of the morning. Reason: her 1st period was Spanish and Algebra was after that. She wasn't good at Spanish and Math she could do without. That was why she was glad that her last class was something interesting: Biology. It was neat learning about living things and the homework came mostly as worksheets with cool puzzles. The only thing about Biology she didn't like was writing essays on Biology related events in the newspaper.  
  
On Saturdays, however, she was a free girl all morning watching TV. Her favorite show was 'Digimon: Digital Monsters'. She had watched and taped all of seasons 1,2,3, and now 4. But her most favorite season of all was season 3, 'Digimon Tamers'. She loved the show; she had even started collecting action-figures based on season 3. She had printed out 'Fan Fics' of digimon, which she kept in the top drawer of her desk. She had watched the show ever since she was in her old house and wasn't tired of it yet.  
  
Seeing as how she finished all her homework for tonight with the exception of her Biology worksheet, Gina got off her bed, and exited her pink-walled room to go to the kitchen down the hall.  
  
--------------------------  
  
The kitchen was relatively large; having both the kitchen and dining room together in the same room was a good thing, as far as Gina was concerned. On the left side of the room were the stove, sink, and multiple cupboards where pans, breads, and seasonings were stored. In the middle of the room was a counter that was U-shaped, with the sink and stove built into it. It had chairs under the overhang for eating over the counter. And on the right of the room was the dinner table and in the left-hand corner, the china closet. Her mother was at the stove, watching a pan of water boil as she waited to put the spaghetti in it. It was Gina's favorite, the long, thin spaghetti.  
  
"Hey Mom," she said, walking over to a cabinet near the sink where glasses were kept, "how much longer until dinner's ready?"  
  
Mrs. Miller looked up from the stove and then over to her daughter.  
  
"That all depends," she said, "did you finish all your homework?"  
  
After retrieving a glass from the cabinet, Gina walked over to the refrigerator.  
  
"Yeah, I finished both Math and English," she replied, opening the fridge.  
  
"Didn't you also have Biology?"  
  
"Yeah, but I got half of that done in class today. I'll finish the rest tomorrow."  
  
Mrs. Miller gave her daughter an approving smile.  
  
"Alright then, in that case, the pasta will be ready in nine minutes," she said, as she began to put the spaghetti in the bubbling water.  
  
After pouring herself a glass of juice, Gina walked towards the houses entrance. She had been stuffed in her room for quite a while; she wanted to get some air. She thought about getting her jacket, but she figured she wouldn't need it. She observed herself in the foyer mirror. She was currently wearing a pale blue shirt with dark blue-rimmed sleeves and collar, blue jeans, and white socks. She was wearing her blue slippers and it wasn't that cold outside, so she figured that she was all set.  
  
"Mom!" she called over her shoulder, "I'm going out for a while!"  
  
"Just come back in for supper!" her mother called back.  
  
"Sure!"  
  
Opening the door, Gina stepped outside onto the tiled porch. It had chairs on one side and potted plants on the other. Two cars were parked in the driveway in front of her. But it didn't stop there. The driveway formed a circle in the front yard with a flower garden in the middle. Her dad was both an architect and a repairman so he was very creative. Gina remembered a time when she and her dad would always go in the backyard and play with their dog. It relieved all the stress that Gina had built up over schoolwork. But they hadn't gone out lately. Her dad had too much work to do.  
  
Taking a sip of her orange juice, Gina walked along the driveway, thinking. Her life had been getting dull lately. She hadn't really made a lot of friends, except with the girl next door. She was a girl her age that loved anime as much as she did. But since her dad was in the hospital, they had hardly gotten the chance to hang out lately, seeing as the girl visited her dad every day. Gina's sister, Lisa Miller, was just a year older than she was, but didn't share the exact same interests as her. That made it hard to talk to each other. She always longed to have an adventure; that something exciting would happen to her.  
  
(At times I wish that Digimon were real, that would be cool,) she thought, staring up at the cloudless blue sky, (it would be awesome to have a digimon partner. At least my life wouldn't be as dull as it is now.)  
  
---------------------------  
  
Thirteen-year old Lisa Miller watched her sister through her window. She was lying on her stomach atop her bed, reading one of her books called, "Broken Sky: Book One". As far as books were concerned, Lisa had lots. On the right of her bed was a big white bureau with books packed in two of the four shelves. And not little kid books, Lisa had books for young adults and grown-ups. Not to mention that most of the books were so old that the covers were tearing. From 'Buffy' books to books by 'Anne Rice', Lisa would read any book. Gina had a bookshelf too as well as a bureau, but her books were for kids.  
  
Lisa's book collection wasn't just books, it also had anime comics too. They were on the second shelf. She had manga like 'InuYasha', 'Magic Knight Rayearth', three books of 'X', and 'Gundam Wing'. Anything that had action in it, Lisa would buy. Lisa liked adventure too, but unlike her sister, she had learned to cope with the fact that they were to young for the action her sister wished for. Not to mention that Lisa didn't day dream as much as Gina. She saw no point of fantasizing about things that couldn't be real. Like 'Digimon".  
  
Lisa wasn't into 'Digimon', at least not totally. She liked season 1 and bought some digimon cards, but that was about it. She considered season 2 and the latest season 4 as dumb, as for season 3 she thought it was okay, but the fact that it was only a show made it less interesting for her. The only anime that Lisa watched was 'InuYasha' and the 'Saiyuki' DVD. Her top shelf carried other shows and DVD's on anime, but most was because her sister wanted to get them, and Lisa had been too generous.  
  
Lisa was more in-tuned with the real world, while her sister was always into fantasy. Even their rooms were different. Gina's was pink-walled and full of 'Beanie Babies' and knickknacks. Lisa's walls had yellow wallpaper and her room was full of books, tapes, and notebooks, seeing as Lisa liked to write stories in her spare time. Her sister wrote too, only she was much better at it. She even had books that were piled on her desk, which was on the left side of the room. Those were books on fortune telling, psychology, and even a couple of encyclopedias. The fact that she was a bookworm didn't bother Lisa; she liked reading about things.  
  
Sighing, Lisa put down her book, and stretched. Hopping off her bed, Lisa went over to her desk to get her Math book that she had deposited on it earlier.  
  
(Might as well get ready for the test next week,) she thought to herself, paging through the book to the right page.  
  
Walking back to her bed, Lisa looked into her closet's mirror. She was wearing a simple gray and blue shirt with blue jeans. It wasn't her best outfit, but she didn't think that a girl should spend so much time in the morning picking out clothes. Which was what her sister did daily. The two were total opposites, but still sisters. And if it was one thing they had in common it was anime.  
  
Just then, Lisa heard her fathers work van coming in the driveway and the front door open as Gina came back inside.  
  
(If dad's home then dinner must almost be ready,) she thought, getting to the right page of her Math book, (oh well, there's still time to study.)  
  
----------------------------  
  
After depositing her empty glass in the sink, Gina headed for her room. She still had four minutes to kill before dinner, so she figured that she'd at least set up her Biology worksheet for after dinner. She didn't have much to do anyway. Walking quickly down the hall, she past hers sisters' room, the bathroom, and her parents' room, until she reached her own at the end of the hall by the backroom.  
  
Her room was pink-walled with a white, four-shelf bureau in the middle of the right wall. The top two shelves were filled with nothing but 'Beanie Babies' and other toys that she had collected over the years. The third shelf was a home for books 1-49 of 'Animorphs' and the bottom shelf was where she kept her schoolbooks when she wasn't using them. To the right of her bureau, near the door, was a smaller bookshelf with only two shelves. The top was nothing but papers and folders of books and fan fics she was attempting to write. The bottom was practically empty except for some 'Lisa Frank' items. The very top of the smaller bureau was occupied by a couple of potted plants. On the very top of her other bureau were digimon action figures of Gallantmon, Sakuyamon, Gargomon, and Kyubimon.  
  
Her desk, which was at the far left of her room, was pretty organized. On the left was where she kept her books. She had all the books in the 'Avalon: Web of Magic' series and she also had some 'Sailor Moon' novels. There was also manga stacked with them. Gina's manga collection consisted of books 2-5 of 'Angelic Layer', books 1 and 3 of 'CardCaptor Sakura', and all, but book 11, of 'Sailor Moon'. On the right were practically all the books in the 'Redwall' series and a motion lamp with red colored drops inside. And in the center stood an Imerialdramon Paladin Mode action figure. And sitting in front of her window was a small stereo that once belonged to her sister.  
  
The nightstand next to her bed was also covered in knickknacks. It consisted of her lamp, her CD player, a Kleenex box, and a pair of purple- rimmed, blue-glassed goggles that she bought when they went on vacation in Tennessee. There was a sliding glass mirror on the sidewall by her bed, which was also a closet. Her sister had one too, as well as a nightstand, and a white bureau. With all the things the girls collected, they needed this much in their rooms. A little tired from her walk outside, Gina decided to wait on the Biology worksheet, and take a while to rest. Walking over to her flower-printed bed, Gina was ready to just plop down on it, when she noticed something.  
  
There were a couple of objects on her bed that weren't there before. Leaning in closer, she examined them, carefully. One of the items was what looked like a card pouch, the kind she saw the kids on 'Digimon Tamers' wear. It was 4 ½ inches high and 2 ½ centimeters wide. There was a clasp in back for hooking them on someone's pants and there was a symbol in front of it. It was a vertical crescent moon with its two curved points facing the right. Curious, Gina reached down, and unbuckled the clasp on top. She was surprised at what she found inside.  
  
Cards; there were cards inside. She was about to check what kind they were, when the second item caught her eye.  
  
It was a circular-square shape on top, with a U-shape on the bottom, which harbored two oval buttons. In the middle of the circular-square was a copper-colored ring with a square screen in the middle. There was a copper- colored strap on top that ended with a clasp. Hesitantly, Gina picked up the odd object, and began to examine it. She looked at the back, the sides, she played with the strap, and even shook it. She discovered that on the right side, there was a slot built into the device like a card reader, or..  
  
A D-Arc.  
  
Gina quickly dropped the object back on her bed. It couldn't be, it just couldn't. She had bought a toy digivice from season 2, but not one from season 3, yet. Plus, there was no copper D-Arc in season 3. Gina eyed the device for a while, then picked it up again. It felt like it was made of metal instead of plastic. Gina looked it over again.  
  
(Could this really be a real digivice?) she thought, eyes wide, (no way! Digimon is only a TV show, this can't possibly be real! But.........)  
  
Gina lifted the device up to her face so that she was eye-level with the screen.  
  
"What if it is real?" she asked to no one.  
  
Before she could give it any more thought.  
  
"Gina, Lisa! Wash up for dinner!" her mother called from the kitchen.  
  
Sighing, Gina put the device back down on the bed, and started to get up. Then, she stopped, and turned back to the two, mysterious items. After staring at them for a few seconds, Gina carefully picked them up, and placed them on her nightstand next to her goggles. She figured that they'd be safer there, her parents would think that they were just a couple of new knickknacks. Without saying a word, Gina turned, and left the room.  
  
------------------------------ 6:24 PM  
  
The dinner table was medium length and oval-shaped. There was a place on all the sides for someone to sit if company ever came over, so it wasn't too small. Now, it currently had four chairs around it. Mr. Miller at the head of the table, the Mrs. was across from him, and Gina and Lisa sat across from one another on the sides. Dinner was the time to talk about events of the day: events during school, work, etc. Mr. Miller was currently talking about the newest assignment that he was working on, a repair job: he was attempting to fix a bathtub/shower structure, but he didn't have all the parts necessary plus one of the water pipes was cracked, and he'd have to fix it tomorrow.  
  
Normally, Gina would have talked first, telling Lisa her latest idea for a 'Digimon' fan fic. But tonight, Gina was just staring blankly down at her spaghetti, totally 'zoned out'. Lisa had noticed this and knew that whenever her sister 'zoned out', she was usually deep in thought about something. Whether it was about school or something else, Lisa didn't know. She tried asking, but Gina had just blankly said that it was nothing. It wouldn't bother Lisa as much, since her sister 'zoned out' on a daily basis, but this time it was different. Gina didn't just look 'zoned out', but disturbed as well. When dinner was over, Gina quickly put her dish in the sink, and hurried down the hall. She looked eager to leave, so Lisa didn't stop to question her.  
  
Figuring that Gina would come talk to her if it was important, Lisa let it go, and walked to her room. She still needed to study for her test and it was on Tuesday, giving her lots of study time. Upon entering her room, Lisa went to her bed to start studying when she spotted something on her bed. Two objects that weren't there before lay on top of her open Math book, one on each page. Lisa walked over to them observed them from a distance.  
  
One was what looked like a small, brown cardholder that she saw kids in her school use to carry various card games around. But this one had a symbol on it. It looked like a yin yang had been laid out horizontally and then split in half, with a small circle in the middle. The next object appeared to be made of metal and was a circular-square shape with a U-shape on the bottom. There was a screen in the middle that was surrounded by a red ring, and two oval buttons under it. There was a red strap on top with a clasp on the end. It wasn't until Lisa slowly walked over, picked it up, and examined it completely that she noticed a slot on the right side.  
  
Puzzled, she looked at it over and over again. She thought that she had seen it before, somewhere else, but she couldn't exactly remember where. She scrunched her nose, something she did whenever she got confused. It probably was one of Gina's toys. She would sometimes leave them in here when she stopped by. Lisa shrugged and picked up the cardholder. She placed the two objects on her nightstand, between her lamp and jewelry box. She then picked up her textbook and started reading over the problems she was sure would be on the test.  
  
(If they are Gina's,) she thought, (she'd probably come by and pick them up before she went to bed. No big deal.)  
  
--------------------  
  
9:15 PM  
  
Between finishing up her Biology worksheet and getting caught up in a good book, not to mention looking over the strange device again, Gina was ready to call it a night. After completing her homework, she would usually reward herself with a taped episode of 'Digimon'. But after the strange, not to mention sudden, appearance of the odd device, Gina had spent half the night looking it over. She had now looked it over several times and still had no clue about it. The only thing that she could think of was that it really was a D-Arc, and as cool as that sounded, it was almost unreal. She had thought about telling her sister or parents about it, but what would that accomplish? After an hour and a half of observation, she took a break on the device, and started to read the book she was doing her report on. One of her favorites of the 'Redwall' series: 'Mariel of Redwall'.  
  
She was just getting into the second half of the book, when her sister came into her room; completely forgetting to knock.  
  
"I just figured I'd return this to you before I went to bed," Lisa said, simply.  
  
She never really wore a nightgown or PJ's to bed. She just threw some old clothes together to make a night outfit. Tonight was no exception: a white and green tie-dye shirt with short pants. Gina would normally have a nightgown on by now, but she was to caught up in her book to notice anything, including the time. Until now.  
  
"Huh?" she asked, blankly, looking up at her sister.  
  
That was when she saw what her sister was holding out to her. It was a device that looked exactly like the one she had found earlier that day on her bed! The only thing that was different was the color!  
  
"Holy Cow!" Gina gasped, wide-eyed, dropping her book.  
  
Lisa looked puzzled.  
  
"What?" she asked.  
  
"Where did you get that?!" Gina exclaimed, eyeing the device.  
  
"It was in my room, on my bed," Lisa stated, giving her sister a weird look, "isn't it yours?"  
  
Instead of answering, Gina stumbled off of her bed, and grabbed the other device on her nightstand. She held it up for her sister to see.  
  
"This one's mine, it looks just like yours, only mine's an orangey-copper color," she said, still a little shocked, "where'd you get that one?"  
  
Lisa was just standing there, staring at Gina's device. If the one she had wasn't her sisters', then where had it come from? Lisa hadn't thought anything of it until now because she thought it belonged to her sister. But it wasn't, there was a strange object in her room, and it wasn't even there before. It was more than just weird.  
  
"I-I don't know," Lisa admitted, a little confues now, "it wasn't there before. What do you think it is?"  
  
"A D-Arc," Gina stated without a second thought.  
  
Lisa blinked.  
  
"A what?" she asked.  
  
"A D-Arc. It's all I could think of it being, it looks just like one," Gina stated, turning the device around in her hand.  
  
"Uh, sis? What's a D-Ark?" Lisa asked, now totally confused.  
  
Gina gave her sister a surprised look.  
  
"You saw what they look like sis," she insisted, "you saw them in the first three episodes of 'Digimon Tamers'. They're digivices!"  
  
Lisa just stared at her sister and the devices for a few minutes before giving her reply.  
  
"Sis, are you playing a practical joke on me to make me think that I'm going nuts?" she asked, eyeing her sister, suspiciously.  
  
Gina dropped her arms to her sides and gave her sister one of her well- practiced exasperated looks.  
  
"No," she answered, firmly, "I'm not. And I don't know who put these in our rooms, unless it was Mom or Dad."  
  
"Are you kidding?" Lisa asked, "you know Dad thinks the shows we watch are dumb, why'd he get us both a toy based on one of them?"  
  
Gina bit her lip. If their parents didn't get these for them, then who did? And if it was someone else, how'd they get inside the house without anyone knowing it?  
  
Just then, a loud beeping noise filled the girls' ears, startling the two of them. Both looked around the room for the source. They knew it couldn't be the smoke alarm, or it would've been much louder.  
  
"What is that?" Lisa asked, nervously, as the beeping continued.  
  
Gina was about to reply when she suddenly realized where the beep was coming from.  
  
(Of course,) she thought, looking down at her hands, (it has to be.........!)  
  
Gina lifted up the device and, just as she thought, the screen was flashing blue!  
  
"Lisa! Check your digivice," she ordered, eyes not leaving the screen.  
  
Confused, but not in the mood to argue, Lisa looked down at her 'digivice'. Sure enough, her screen was flashing as well. Of course, that didn't help Lisa calm down.  
  
"W-why is it doing this?" she asked.  
  
Gina didn't answer. She observed the two buttons below the screen. On a hunch, she pressed the one on the right, and the flashing screen was replaced by a single, digital word: Locate. After a moments hesitation, Gina pressed the button on the left, and without any warning whatsoever, a holographic compass appears inches away from the top of the screen.  
  
"Gaah!" Lisa cried, jumping back, she was apparently more than freaked now.  
  
Gina, on the other hand, seemed to grow excited about the sudden appearance of the hologram. It proved her theory correct.  
  
(It is a real D-Arc! I knew it!) she thought in pure excitement.  
  
The red arrow on the compass seemed to swerve around the circle-shaped compass for a while before finally stopping on the left, pointing at Gina's window. Gina hurried to her window, pausing only to draw back the shades. Lisa accompanied her in looking out the window, past the driveway, and across the road beyond the gate. It was dark out, but the girls could still see the woods that belonged to the people who lived across the street.  
  
Suddenly, a beam of pale white light shot up from within the woods, over the treetops, and into the night sky. The girls were open-mouthed and speechless, for about five seconds anyway.  
  
"What is that?" Lisa asked in a somewhat demanding tone.  
  
Gina knew exactly what it was. She had seen it on 'Tamers' enough times to know what it was.  
  
"Something's coming," she stated, then ran to her desk.  
  
Grabbing a piece of paper from behind her 'Imperialdramon' action figure and a pencil from her pencil holder that sat beside it, Gina quickly scribbled down a note that read:  
  
Gone out to the garage for something. Be back soon.  
  
Gina and Lisa  
  
After finishing the note, Gina placed it on her bed, and opened her closet.  
  
"What are you doing?" Lisa asked, going over to read the note.  
  
Gina pulled out her light blue 'Route 66' jacket and quickly slipped into it.  
  
"I'm going out to the woods," she said, simply.  
  
"WHAT!?" Lisa exclaimed, not loud enough for their parents to hear in their room, but still loud, "what do mean you're 'going out to the woods'?"  
  
Gina reached back into her closet and pulled out another jacket, a dark blue one.  
  
"I want to see where that light came from," she stated, tossing her sister the jacket, "and you're coming too."  
  
Lisa caught the jacket absently and stared at her sister.  
  
"Why do I have to come on this wild goose chase?" she asked.  
  
"Because, 1: You're my big sister," Gina said and then raised her 'D-Arc' for her sister to see, "and 2: You also have a D-Arc, so you must be a Tamer too. You have to come."  
  
Lisa opened her mouth for a moment, then closed it, then opened it again.  
  
"Sis, 'Digimon' and D-Arcs aren't real," she stated, firmly, but it didn't carry out well.  
  
"Then what are these?" Gina insisted, pointing to her D-Arc, "look, I know you're not a believer when it comes to unreal situations, but you have to come. Please, for me? If we get caught, I'll take the blame, okay?"  
  
Lisa paused. She looked down at her D-Arc, then looked back to her sister.  
  
"Fine," she groaned, "but if we get kidnapped, I'm going to kill you."  
  
Smiling, Gina slowly opened her door. Her parents were in their room, which was a couple feet down the hall on the opposite side from Gina's room. They could hear the small TV that their parents had. Seeing that no one was in the hallway, Gina slipped out of her room, followed by a rather reluctant Lisa. After opening the door to the backroom as silently as they could, both sisters dashed inside, and quietly shut the door.  
  
The backroom was also called the 'computer room'. It was where the family computer, a 'Compaq MV520', sat comfortably on a desk by the backdoor. There was another door leading out to the garage, the one by the computer was more like an emergency exit. There was a couch against the right wall and a medium-sized TV right across from it. A tape rack was against the wall by the garage door and a trunk was across from it. The trunk held Gina and Lisa's baby toys and clothes, their Mother couldn't bear to put them in the attic. Gina and Lisa both made a beeline for the back door by the computer.  
  
"Are you sure you want to do this?" Lisa asked, as Gina unlocked the door, "I mean, we don't know what that light was, it could be dangerous."  
  
Gina turned to her sister.  
  
"I know what it is," Gina said in a matter-of-fact voice.  
  
"Yeah?" Lisa asked, unconvinced, "what?"  
  
"A Digital Field," Gina answered, opening the door, quietly.  
  
Their parents turned the 'burglar alarm' on at 10:00, right before they went to bed. And they checked the girls usually around 10:10. Lisa figured as long as they were back by then, they'd be fine. But what Gina just told her made her think they may not come home at all. Gina was already out the door and was making her way to the front yard.  
  
"Sis, wait!" Lisa called, closing the back door quietly, and running after her sister, "what do you mean, a 'Digital Field'?"  
  
"I mean that a digimon might be coming," Gina said, a tinge of excitement in her voice.  
  
All her life, Gina had wanted adventure. 'Digimon' had given her that adventure; to find out that it might be real was almost too exciting to believe. She had always dreamed that digimon could be real, she'd even wished for it during her walk earlier in the day. She looked down at the D- Arc.  
  
(Does this mean that my wish came true?) she thought, wondrously .  
  
Lisa, on the other hand, wondered whether or not this was totally crazy. They had just snuck out of their house and were headed for the woods across the street. The woods were part of private property. And what about that light? Her sister claimed that it had something to do with 'Digimon', which was insane, of course. 'Digimon', as far as Lisa was concerned, was a TV show. It wasn't real. Lisa always believed that there was a logical explanation for everything, so there had to be one for that light. But still...  
  
Lisa looked down at the red D-Arc she was carrying tightly in her hand.  
  
(Perhaps this 'is' real,) she thought, as both she and her sister neared the front gate.  
  
After going through the gate, the girls could get a better look at the woods. It was completely dark, the only things barely visible were the house on the other side of the road that was surrounded by thin woods and a cluster of walled in houses to the left called 'Summerton South'. It was a new moon out, so there was no moonlight. The only lights were the lamps outside of the Millers' house.  
  
Just as Lisa was about to suggest they forget about this crazy plan, Gina pointed towards the middle of the woods. Lisa followed her sisters' finger to where she was pointing. In the middle of the woods was a thick fog that didn't look like any fog that Lisa had ever seen. For one thing, it was a light magenta color, and it didn't seem to spread like most fog. The fog was just there.  
  
"That's the weirdest fog I've ever seen," Lisa stated.  
  
"That's because it's not ordinary fog," Gina said, as she looked both ways of the street, "if I'm right, anyway."  
  
Before Lisa could ask what she meant, Gina ran across the street, and onto the other side. Reluctant, but curious at the same time, Lisa followed her. Soon, they were on another persons' property. The ground beneath them was covered with grass and dead leaves. Aside from the house in the center and the cement wall of 'Summerton South' on the left, the area was completely vacant.  
  
"What if we get caught?" Lisa asked, holding herself as a cold wind blew by.  
  
"I doubt that anyone's awake," Gina pointed out, gesturing to the house, "the lights are out."  
  
Lisa didn't look very convinced, but agreed for the time being. Gina looked down at the D-Arc's compass. The arrow was pointing directly at the fog. Gina turned to her sister.  
  
"The compass is pointing to the fog," she told Lisa.  
  
"And that means, what?" Lisa asked, eying the strange fog.  
  
"We need to go into it."  
  
"No way! We don't even know what's in there!"  
  
"We won't know until we look."  
  
"You can look. I'm not!"  
  
Sighing, Gina walked forward, towards the fog. As she went further into the woods and closer to the fog, Gina started thinking that maybe this wasn't such a good idea. Not that she was scared or anything really, but if this was in fact a 'Digital Field', any kind of 'Digimon' could be in it. But, then again, the D-Arc wouldn't lead her to it if it were dangerous. With that thought in mind, Gina continued to head for the fog until she was standing only a foot away from it.  
  
(Here goes,) she thought, taking a step into the fog.  
  
------------------------------ --  
  
Digital Field, 9:32  
  
For a few seconds, Gina was blinded by fog. All she could see was the pinkish-purple mist that swirled around her.  
  
(Oh man, I wish Lisa had come with me,) she thought, looking around the fog, (anything could be hiding in this. And what if I have to face an evil digimon, or something?)  
  
Gina continued to walk through the fog for what seemed like forever without seeing anything. Finally, Gina came out into an empty space, a clearing in the fog. It wasn't too small, there was enough room to walk around in. But there wasn't anything else inside the clearing. Gina sighed, disappointed.  
  
(I guess Lisa was right,) she thought, (maybe this was a wild goose chase.)  
  
Gina was about to exit the clearing, when she heard a noise from in front of her. Turning around, Gina strained her eyes to see through the fog, without much luck.  
  
"Lisa?" she called out, praying that it was her sister and not some wild digimon.  
  
There came no reply. More nervous now than before, Gina got into a fighting stance that she learned in karate class last summer. She didn't recall many of the moves, but she remembered enough to defend herself. She heard the noise again, but it was closer. Then, without much warning, something came bounding out of the fog, and rammed right into Gina. Unable to stay balanced, Gina toppled to the ground.  
  
"Hi! Are you the one I'm supposed to team up with?" asked a voice.  
  
"Huh...wha?" Gina stuttered, trying to pick herself up.  
  
She only managed to get up on her elbows and when she looked at what was sitting on her chest, she knew why.  
  
The thing that had rammed into her was a cat. But it wasn't an ordinary cat. Its fur was a copper-orange color, it had long ears that ended with tufts of dark blue fur, and it had a long, copper tail with dark blue stripes, and a dark blue tuft at the tip. Also on the tail, near the tip, was a shiny silver ring. Its hind paws each had three dark blue claws sticking out of them and its front paws were covered with lavender-colored gloves with four dark violet stripes on each. Each glove ended with three black claws that looked really sharp. The final thing about the cat that was different was the cats' eyes. Instead of the normal round shape, the eyes were a sharp shape, and were colored brown with a visible red tint.  
  
In short, the cat definitely didn't look like a normal cat of any kind. It looked more like Gatomon from 'Digimon Adventure 01', only the cats' coloring was different. The cat was looking at Gina with a simple smile on its face. Gina, on the other hand, couldn't stop staring at the cat.  
  
"Uh, h-hi kitty," she stuttered, her eyes not leaving the cat, or its claws, "w-where did you c-come from?"  
  
The cat tilted its head to one side and gave her an odd look.  
  
"Man, do all humans talk this funny?" it asked.  
  
Seeing that Gina's eyes couldn't get any wider than they already were, she simply let her mouth fall open.  
  
The cat talked! It was really talking! And it was a boy cat apparently.  
  
When Gina had taken a few seconds to get her composure back, she addressed the cat again with a little more steadier voice.  
  
"Um, only when we get scared," she said, answering the cats' question.  
  
The cat blinked.  
  
"You're scared of me?" it asked, sounding hurt.  
  
"Oh no, I don't mean that I'm afraid of you or anything," Gina assured, "you just startled me that's all."  
  
"So you're not afraid?" the cat asked, perking up.  
  
"No, you seem friendly. Can you let me up now?"  
  
"Huh? Oh, yeah."  
  
The cat hopped off of Gina, allowing her to stand up. It took her a while, though, to find her D-Ark, and turn the compass off. She looked down at the cat, who was looking up at her, expectantly. He was a couple of inches higher than her knee, not counting his ears, and was currently standing on his hind legs.  
  
"Um, just out of curiosity," Gina began, eying the cat, "what are you?"  
  
"That one's easy," the cat stated, "I'm a digimon."  
  
That last sentence almost knocked Gina over again. She stared down at the cat in disbelief. He was real! He was a digimon and he was real! Her wish really had come true! In one move, Gina scooped up the cat, and hugged him tightly.  
  
"WOW!" she cried, as she hugged the cat, and danced around in circles, "you're a digimon! You really are! This is amazing, I can't believe this is really happening!"  
  
"Uh.........excuse me....could you stop?" the cat managed to sputter, as Gina continued to squeeze and dance, "I.....can't breathe...and.....I'm.........getting dizzy.."  
  
Gina suddenly realized that she was choking the cat and let him go.  
  
"Oh! I'm so sorry!" she apologized, "I just never saw a real digimon before."  
  
"Well, I never saw a real human before, but I didn't squeeze you," the cat pointed out, rubbing his neck.  
  
"No, you jumped on me," Gina stated.  
  
"I was excited!" the cat objected.  
  
"And I wasn't?" Gina asked.  
  
The cat frowned, then rubbed the back of his head.  
  
"I guess we both got a little excited, huh?" he asked, embarrassed.  
  
Gina smiled gently.  
  
"Yeah," she agreed, "definitely."  
  
They both started giggling out of pure embarrassment. Gina liked the cat; he was really nice and almost reminded her of herself. He had a young, deep voice; almost like a kid her age. She was about to ask him for his name when a noise from in front of them got her attention. Gina looked up and was surprised at what came out of the misty veil.  
  
It was another cat, though this one was different. It looked like a lion cub. Its fur was bright red, its paws were a lighter shade of red, and its tail ended with a bright orange tuft. The cub didn't have a mane, only a small lock of fiery red fur that was hanging down over its eyes, which were large, round, and a navy blue color. It had a blank look in its eyes and said nothing as it walked over to Gina and the cat.  
  
(Is this one a digimon too,) Gina wondered as she observed the new cat.  
  
It looked up at her and then at the other cat.  
  
"Is this one of the humans?" it asked, flatly.  
  
Gina was a little surprised by the new cats' voice: it was masculine, but mono-toned and flat as well. There wasn't any shred of feeling in the cats' voice. The other cat she was with simply frowned and raised an eyebrow.  
  
"Well, she's not a Meramon," he stated, sarcastically.  
  
Unfazed, the lion cub looked back up at Gina.  
  
"I thought that there was supposed to be two of them," he stated.  
  
The copper cat shrugged, a movement that looked a little silly to Gina.  
  
"So, they must have miss-counted, or something," he suggested.  
  
Gina let out a sigh and looked at the ground.  
  
"Um," she began, "there was another girl, my sister, but........."  
  
"Gina!?"  
  
Gina's head popped up while the two cats simply raised their ears. Gina whirled around and began to shout.  
  
"Lisa? Is that you?" she called.  
  
The sound of footsteps reached her ears and at that moment, her sister came stumbling out of the fog. Gina sighed in relief.  
  
"Sis, it's you!" she exclaimed in surprise, as her sister ran over to her, "but I thought you'd gone back to the house."  
  
Lisa stopped in front of her and put her hands on her hips.  
  
"Yeah, well, don't forget that you are my little sister," she scolded, light-heartedly, "I can't just let you wander around in a fog by yourself, you're my responsibility."  
  
"Well, I'm glad you came after all," Gina said, then motioned to the two cats behind her, "I'd like you to meet a couple friends of mine."  
  
The minute Lisa looked over to the cats, she immediately freaked.  
  
"Aaaahhhh! Wild animals!" she cried, shoving Gina behind her, "get back, sis!"  
  
Gina rolled her eyes and was about to say something when the copper cat spoke up.  
  
"Well, there's two of them," he said to the lion cub, "you happy now?"  
  
The lion cub said nothing, but continued to stare at Lisa.  
  
Lisa's eyes bugged out to their limit.  
  
"Oh! My! Gosh!" she cried, grabbing her sisters' arm, "the cat talked! But.........but that's impossible!"  
  
Gina shook her head.  
  
"Sis, they aren't ordinary cats," she explained, "they're digimon."  
  
Lisa gave her sister an 'are you serious?' look.  
  
"Gina, come on! I'm in no mood for jokes!" her sister stated, firmly.  
  
Gina pried her sisters' hands off her arm and faced her.  
  
"I'm not joking," she said, firmly, "they are digimon. Go ahead, ask them."  
  
Lisa, not believing any of this, just shook her head. She was just about to drag her sister away, when the lion cub took a few steps towards them.  
  
"Excuse me," he said, voice flat against the open air, "but we need to know now if you two are the ones."  
  
Lisa froze and stared down at him in shock.  
  
"Y-you can t-talk too?" she stuttered.  
  
The lion simply nodded while the other cat gave her a confused look.  
  
"Boy, you humans sure do get scared easily," he pointed out.  
  
Lisa looked like she was going to pass out. All of this was just too much for her to take in at once. But despite her shock, she refused to faint or wimp out any further, and attempted to calm herself down. Meanwhile, Gina turned to the cats.  
  
"What do you mean?" she asked, "why are you two here exactly?"  
  
The copper cat shrugged again.  
  
"We were just told that we were to meet up with a couple of humans," he explained, "are you them?"  
  
Lisa said nothing while Gina looked thoughtful.  
  
"I think we are," she said.  
  
Lisa stared at her. Gina simply shrugged.  
  
"Well, we are the only two humans here," she explained and then held up her D-Arc, "and we have these, so we must be their partners. Why else would these lead us here?"  
  
Lisa opened her mouth to object, but then stopped, and closed it. She wasn't too serious when it came to fiction. But now it seemed that the subject was starting to become fact. In front of her were a couple of digimon, creatures of pure fiction, and yet they were really here, standing right in front of her. There was no logical explanation for that. Taking a deep breath, she turned to her sister.  
  
"Well if they are our partners," she said, slowly, "which one is my partner and which one's yours?"  
  
Before Gina could reply to that, both their D-Arcs' screens began to glow, startling both the girls and the cats. Both girls stared at their digivices. Like with the 'digital compass', a flat, holographic blue circle popped out of each screen. There was a picture of one of the cats on each one.  
  
On Gina's, a picture of the copper cat appeared, and under the picture scrolled down the following information:  
  
Gankomon  
  
Level: Rookie  
  
Type: Holy Beast Digimon  
  
Attribute: Vaccine  
  
Attack(s): Sonic Jab, Thunder Claw  
  
Information: 'A small digimon gifted with unbelievable attack power.'  
  
On Lisa's, a picture of the lion cub appeared with the following information:  
  
Nekomon  
  
Level: Rookie  
  
Type: Animal Digimon  
  
Attribute: Data  
  
Attack(s): Lotus Storm  
  
Information: 'A lone digimon who has the heart of a true warrior.'  
  
After all the information had been displayed, the holograms were sucked back into the screens. After a couple seconds, Gina looked down at the copper cat.  
  
"So, we're partners then?" she asked, smiling.  
  
The cat, Gankomon, nodded.  
  
"Looks that way," he said, returning the smile.  
  
Lisa turned to Nekomon, who was still looking at her.  
  
"Are you okay with being my, um, partner?" she asked, nervously.  
  
"Are 'you' okay with it?" he inquired.  
  
Lisa thought a moment, then nodded.  
  
"I guess it wouldn't hurt," she admitted, "besides........." she smiled, politely, "lions 'are' my favorite animal."  
  
Nekomon blinked his big blue eyes and nodded.  
  
"Alright then," he said, and walked over to Lisa.  
  
Gina smiled at her sister and then faced the cats again.  
  
"Well, since we know your names, I'll tell you ours," she stated, "I'm Gina and that's my sister, Lisa."  
  
Both cats turned looked up at the girls. Gankomon gave a thumbs up sign, which looked a little weird since he only had three claws, while Nekomon simply nodded.  
  
"But sis, how are we going to keep them a secret from Mom and Dad?" Lisa asked, a little concerned.  
  
Gina shrugged.  
  
"We'll find a way," she said, picking up Gankomon.  
  
"Why do we need to be kept secret?" Nekomon asked, a hint of confusion in his otherwise flat voice.  
  
"So we don't scare 'Mom and Dad,'" Gankomon replied, in a 'matter-of-fact' tone.  
  
Gina started giggling while Lisa just rolled her eyes.  
  
Around them, the fog began to disperse. Within minutes, the fog was completely gone, leaving only two young girls and two digital cats in the middle of the woods. Without hesitation, the two Tamers and their partner digimon began their way home.  
  
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------  
  
Pronouncing and Meaning: This is just a help bar for those who don't know Japanese.  
  
Gang-koh-mon - 'Ganko' means 'stubborn' in Japanese.  
  
Neck-oh-mon - 'Neko' means 'cat' in Japanese.  
  
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------  
  
Well, that's about it for the first chapter of the redone 'Digimon Defenders'. I know, there wasn't much difference (for the ones who read it anyway), but I 'did' adjust a few things. I don't know whether or not to give the kids a main oufit or to change their clothes daily. Give me your opinions, 'kay. I'll try and update as soon as I can. 'Till next time! Please R&R! No flames, please! 


	2. Two Plus Two is Four

Digimon Defenders  
  
Disclaimer: I'm back! Sorry it took so long to update, I've been sick, and I've been working on my other fic (which I've recently posted BTW). I hope you liked the first chapter of 'Digimon Defenders'. I based the surroundings off my neighborhood because, well, I know it a bit better than Japan. Anyway, Gina and Lisa are about to experience their first day as Tamers, but can they handle it? And are there other Tamers aside from them? Also, let me know if I should have the kids change clothes daily to be realistic, or if I should just give them an outfit, like the kids on TV (hey, fashion is important). I don't own Digimon, but I do own the storyline, the kids and their families (sorta), their Digimon, and the crests (which will eventually appear). Let's go!  
  
Chapter 2: Two Plus Two is Four  
  
February 7, 2004 - Saturday, 7:30 AM  
  
Sunlight poured through 12 year-old Gina Millers' half open blinds. A few beams hit her face, but all she did was turn over in bed. It was the alarm that woke her up. Drowsily, Gina lifted an arm, and reached out to her 'Hello Kitty' alarm clock that her mother gave her last Christmas. After fumbling a bit, she finally found the 'Set' button, and pressed it. The small dinging noise instantly stopped. Sighing, Gina retracted her arm, and shifted a bit in bed, disturbing the sleeper to the bottom-left of her bed. Gina, drifting back to sleep, didn't hear the sounds of paws on the comforter as she closed her eyes.  
  
"Morning partner!"  
  
Gina's eyes flew open to meet a pair of brown, red tinted eyes that were looking into her brown ones.  
  
"Eeeeek!" she squealed, literally falling out of bed.........and taking her partner with her.  
  
"Woa-oof!" the digital cat cried as he landed face first in the part of the comforter that fell with them.  
  
"Ugh," Gina groaned, pushing herself into a sitting position. She then glanced over at her partner Digimon, "sorry Gankomon. You okay?"  
  
The coppery-orange digi-cat got his nose out of the comforter and rubbed it.  
  
"Yeah," he said in his young male voice, "just warn me before you do that next time."  
  
Gina rubbed her eyes. She was fully awake now.  
  
"It's just that I was, well, surprised to see you," she said, glancing at her clock.  
  
Gankomon turned to her.  
  
"Why?" he asked.  
  
"I, oh, um," Gina didn't know what to say, "uh, it's just that.........when you wake somebody up, you're not supposed to shove your face into theirs."  
  
Gankomon blinked.  
  
"Oh," he said, then rubbed the back of his head out of pure embarrassment, "guess I goofed again, huh?"  
  
Gina got up and smiled down at him.  
  
"No, you didn't, I needed to get up anyway," she assured.  
  
The digital cat got up as well, his ears going past his partners' knees.  
  
"What are we gonna do today, partner?" he asked, cheerfully.  
  
Gina grabbed one of her two pillows that fell from her bed with her and looked over her shoulder at her new friend. Last night felt like a dream. She had been startled not just because Gankomon had surprised her, but she was surprised to see him. She was shocked to see a real Digimon staring at her, but it all came back to her at that moment, yesterday: the wish she made, the D-Arc and Card Holders, her and her sister going into the woods, the Digital Field, and meeting their partners. Gina turned around completely to face her partner.  
  
"Well," she said, smiling, "first you can help me make the bed."  
  
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------  
  
Lisa's Room, 7:35 AM  
  
As sunlight continued to filter through 13 year-old Lisa Millers' blinds and into her face, the tall girl drowsily opened her eyes, and raised her head. It took her a while to get things into focus, but soon things came into view.........including the red lion cub that was sleeping at the foot of her bed. Lisa nearly had a heart attack. The lion cubs' ears flickered in his sleep, a movement that caused Lisa to calm down, and think about how cute the movement looked. She stared at the lion Digimon a little longer before quietly sitting up and swinging her legs off her bed. She then glanced at her nightstand and spotted a couple items wedged between her lamp and jewelry box. It was her red and silver D-Arc and her Card Holder, which bore the unusual divided yin-yang symbol. Lisa sighed.  
  
"I guess," she began in a low voice, "............I guess, it wasn't a dream after all."  
  
A rustle came from behind her. Looking over her shoulder to see the red lion waking up.  
  
"Uh, good morning, Nekomon," she said, still a bit shaky.  
  
The cub turned to her and regarded her with big, round navy blue eyes.  
  
"Good morning," he returned, his voice young and masculine, but flat at the same time.  
  
Lisa cocked her head to one side at the sound of his voice.  
  
(I guess his voice is always like that,) she thought, getting out of bed.  
  
Nekomon watched her as she went over to her sliding mirror/closet door and opened it.  
  
"What are we going to do today?" he asked without expression.  
  
Lisa shrugged.  
  
"I dunno," she admitted, going through her choice of outfits, "I'll ask Gina. She's good when it comes to games."  
  
Nekomon cocked his head to one side.  
  
"Games?" he repeated, "that's not what I meant."  
  
Lisa hesitated and turned to her partner.  
  
"Well, what 'did' you mean?" she asked, confused.  
  
Since Nekomon seemed to naturally frown, he merely blinked.  
  
"What are our plans?" he restated.  
  
Lisa blinked this time and thought a moment.  
  
"Um, well," she thought aloud, "Mom was going to take us to 'Books-A- Million' today, if that's what you meant."  
  
Nekomon blinked again.  
  
"What's a 'Books-A-Million?" he asked, blankly.  
  
Lisa sighed. She had a feeling that today was going to be a 'long' day.  
  
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------  
  
"Gina, when can I come out?" Gankomon called from inside the mirror/closet.  
  
Gina looked over her shoulder.  
  
"Give me a minute," she said, slipping a shirt over her head, "okay, you can come out."  
  
"Finally," came his reply as Gina went over and opened her closet door. Gankomon looked up at his partner and blinked.  
  
Gina was now wearing a pale pink shirt with pinkish-orange sleeves, and a white hem, a pair of blue jeans, and white socks. Gankomon raised an eyebrow.  
  
"You gotta tell me how you do that," he said, "but just why do you stick me in that small room whenever you want to change your appearance anyway?"  
  
Gina smiled and petted the cat Digimon on the head.  
  
"I'll tell you another time," she said, "now, how about we get something to eat?"  
  
Gankomon's eyes lit up.  
  
"Yeah!" he cried, happily.  
  
Gina winced and prayed her parents didn't hear that.  
  
"Quietly," she added.  
  
Gankomon shrugged and followed his Tamer out the door.  
  
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ------------------- 7:45 AM  
  
Since Gina's mother and father didn't wake up until 8:00 and it always took them until 8:15 to get ready for the day, Gina figured she had enough time to sneak in a quick breakfast for Gankomon. She walked silently past her parents' room, although she did hesitate to see if they were awake yet. When she saw they weren't she motioned Gankomon to continue walking as she led him down the tiled hallway and into the white and pink kitchen. Gankomon hesitated when he got into the middle of the room as Gina went to her side of the cabinet to locate food.  
  
"This' where you eat? Inside a big room?" her partner inquired, looking around.  
  
Gina nodded as she pulled out two boxes of cereal.  
  
"Yeah, all human houses are like this," she replied, and held out the cereal boxes, "'kay, you want 'Fruit Loops' or 'Honey Nut Cheerios'?"  
  
Gankomon looked at the colored boxes and a confused look came over his face.  
  
"Huh?" he said, bluntly.  
  
Gina felt like kicking herself when she realized that he most likely had no idea what 'cereal' was. After a moment, she figured a way of asking him in a way he would understand.  
  
"Sorry, let me rephrase that," she apologized and then held up the red box, "do you want the one that tastes sorta like fruit?" She then held up the yellow-brown box. "Or do you want the one that has honey in it?"  
  
Gankomon looked at the two boxes and debated.  
  
"Can't I have both?" he asked, "or do I 'have' to pick just one?"  
  
Gina stopped and thought for a second.  
  
"Uh, well, I never heard of mixing cereals," she admitted, but set the two boxes on the counter, "but I'm sure it's okay."  
  
Going over to the cabinet on the right of the stove, Gina retrieved two small bowls, and brought them over to the counter. She poured some 'Honey Nut Chereos' into each bowl and then added some 'Fruit Loops' to the bowl on the right. She got a spoon for her bowl, but decided not to give Gankomon a spoon.  
  
(He'd probably eat it,) she thought, turning to her partner.  
  
"Do you want milk with it?" she asked.  
  
Gankomon shrugged.  
  
"It doesn't really matter as long as I can eat it," he said, then added, "what's milk, by the way?"  
  
Gina stifled a laugh as she headed for the refrigerator.  
  
"You'll like it," she said, opening the fridge, going in, and coming out with milk.  
  
Gankomon stared at the refrigerator for a second before turning back to Gina and watched as she poured a white liquid into the bowls. She then picked them up and carried them to the other side of the counter, the one with seats. After placing each in front of a chair, Gina turned back to Gankomon.  
  
"Okay, all set," she said, indicating to the chair on the right, "let's eat."  
  
Gankomon smiled and ran up to his chair. With impressive agility, he leapt into the chair, and immediately dived face first into the mixed cereal, splattering milk onto the counter top.  
  
"Hey, Gankomon, watch it!" Gina cried, "don't make a mess."  
  
Gankomon looked up, milk dripping from the fur on his face, and a mixture of 'Fruit Loops' and 'Honey Nut Cheerios' stuck to his face.  
  
"Sorry, I was hungry," he said, licking milk from his lips, "I haven't eaten since I left the Digital World."  
  
At the mention of the Digital World, Gina suddenly grew curious. Was it like it was on TV? Or was it something completely different? She was about to ask, when.........  
  
"Gina?"  
  
Looking up, Gina saw her sister standing at the kitchens' entrance, fully dressed. She wore a short-sleeved, brick red shirt with a faded American flag in front, dark blue jeans, and red socks. Her chestnut brown hair was neatly brushed, unlike Gina's dark brown hair, which was still frizzed up from bed. Nekomon was standing besides her, staring in Gankomons' direction.  
  
"Morning sis," Gina greeted, "want some breakfast?"  
  
Lisa nodded and went over to the cabinet that had the bowls. She opened it, hesitated, and turned to Nekomon.  
  
"Do you want something too?" she asked.  
  
The red lion cub thought a minute before nodding.  
  
"Which one do you want?" Gina asked, pointing to the boxes, "the one with fruit or the one with honey?"  
  
Nekomon looked at the boxes and shrugged.  
  
"It doesn't matter," he said, flatly.  
  
Lisa had retrieved two bowls from the cabinet and brought them over to the counter. She poured 'Honey Nut Chereos' into both bowls and poured milk into her bowl. She then put one bowl next to Gankomon and hers on the left side of Gina. She and Nekomon headed to the other side of the counter.  
  
"Let's just hurry," Lisa urged, taking her seat, "before Mom and Dad get up."  
  
Gina turned to her sister.  
  
"They won't be up for another twenty minutes," she pointed out, "stop worrying."  
  
Lisa didn't look very convinced.  
  
"Sis, if they come in and see a couple of talking cats, one being a lion cub look-alike, they're liable to freak," she stated, "you know how Mom flips out when she even sees a small spider."  
  
Gina smiled slyly at her sister as Nekomon hopped onto the chair with Gankomon, who still had his face buried in the cereal bowl.  
  
"She gets as scared as 'you' do," Gina teased, "you're convinced that spiders are evil."  
  
Lisa made a face.  
  
"Well, I think they are," she commented, eating some cereal.  
  
"Haven't you ever seen 'Charlotte's Web'?"  
  
" 'groan' Gina, that's just a cartoon."  
  
Gina raised an eyebrow and pointed her spoon at her partner, who had resurfaced from the bowl and was licking his lips, and Nekomon, who was calming munching on 'Honey Nut Cheerios'.  
  
"You said that Digimon was only a show and now we have partners," she pointed out.  
  
Lisa saw her point and groaned.  
  
(Why are little sisters always right?) she thought, eating another spoonful of cereal.  
  
Looking over at the two cats, Gina was suddenly struck by an idea.  
  
"Hey, guys, how would you like to come with us to 'Books-A-Million' today?" she asked.  
  
The two cats turned to her in confusion while Lisa whirled on her sister in shock.  
  
"What's a 'Books-A-Million'?" they both asked in unison.  
  
Ignoring her sisters' look, Gina continued to speak.  
  
"It's a place where you buy books," she said.  
  
Gankomon stared at his partner.  
  
"What're books?" he asked, tanned and rainbow loops falling from his face.  
  
Gina rolled her eyes.  
  
(Well, duh, they live out in the wilds of the Digital World,) she thought to herself, (they probably don't know what a book is.)  
  
"They're objects that hold knowledge and information," Nekomon stated from his spot.  
  
Both girls and Gankomon stared at the lion Digimon in surprise.  
  
"You know what books are?" Lisa asked, seeing as how Gina was too surprised to talk.  
  
Nekomon nodded.  
  
"Yes, I came across a few before I came here," he said, glancing sideways at Gankomon, "I know how to read them as well. You should try it in your spare time."  
  
Gankomon narrowed his eyes at the lion cub and scooped up a pawful of mixed cereal.  
  
"Wise guy," he muttered, shoving the cereal into his mouth.  
  
Gina smiled at them.  
  
"So you'll come?" she asked, hopeful.  
  
Nekomon nodded while Gankomon, mouth filled with cereal, merely shrugged.  
  
"All right," Gina cheered, "we leave at-eh?"  
  
Lisa had yanked her sister towards her seat and glared at her.  
  
"Are you nuts?" she asked, "we can't bring them."  
  
Gina stared at her sister.  
  
"Why not?" she asked.  
  
Lisa rolled her eyes.  
  
"Why not-because Mom'll notice them, that's why not," she snapped, "I just got through saying that Mom would flip if she saw them."  
  
Gina grinned.  
  
"Not if she thinks they're toys," she said, simply.  
  
Lisa narrowed her eyes in suspicion at her sister.  
  
"What do you mean?" she asked, cautiously.  
  
Gina only smiled and went back to her cereal. Lisa watched her sister and the two cats eat in worry.  
  
(I've got a 'bad' feeling about this,) she thought.  
  
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------  
  
8:45 A.M.  
  
For an hour and forty-five minutes, the sisters and their partners were discussing what their plan of action was going to be in Gina's room. Lisa thought that the entire plan that Gina had come up with was crazy, but Gankomon went along with it, and it didn't really matter to Nekomon. Gina had figured that since nobody believed that Digimon existed, everyone would think that Gankomon and Nekomon were just a couple of new stuffed animal toys. And since little kids who were brought to 'Books-A-Million' sometimes carried stuffed animals with them, she figured that nobody would mind if they brought in a couple of 'toys' as well.  
  
"Oh, alright," Lisa finally said, after about a half hour of arguing, "I'll do it your way. But how'll we know that Mom won't suspect anything?"  
  
Gankomon and Nekomon were watching the two girls debate calmly, although Gankomon 'did' figit impatiantly.  
  
"Sis, trust me, will ya?" Gina asked, getting her mini-pack from her closet, "I know what I'm doing."  
  
Lisa, mini-pack already over her shoulder, sighed from her spot on Gina's bed. The two Digital cats were sitting next to her. Nekomon looked over at his partner.  
  
"What do we have to do again?" he inquired.  
  
Lisa turned to him.  
  
"You both have to act like stuffed animals," she explained.  
  
Gankomon crossed his arms, an action that looked rather silly.  
  
"What's a stuffed animal?" he asked.  
  
Lisa sighed while Gina turned to him.  
  
"Never mind, but whenever other people are around, don't move and don't talk," she stated.  
  
Nekomon turned to her.  
  
"Why is that?" he asked.  
  
"Yeah," Gankomon piped in, turning to his partner, "why can't we just act normal?"  
  
Lisa looked at her sister for an explanation, after all, she knew more about Digimon. Gina closed her closet door and began to explain.  
  
"Well, here in the Real World, people don't believe that Digimon are real," she explained, "if they saw you acting as you are now, everyone would get really scared. Some might even take you away from us."  
  
Gankomon dropped his arms and glared.  
  
"I wouldn't let that happen," he stated.  
  
Gina smiled at her partner.  
  
"I know, but we'd all get in trouble," she continued, "that's why you can't let people know that you're real. You have to act like these guys."  
  
She plucked a white, stuffed cat out of her closet and showed it to the two Digimon. They blinked at it.  
  
"It's not moving," Gankomon stated after a while.  
  
"It's not even alive," Nekomon pointed out.  
  
Gina nodded.  
  
"It's a toy," she explained, putting it back in the closet, "and you have to act like that. When other people are around, don't move or talk. You'll be safer that way." She smiled at them. "And we can all stay together."  
  
Gankomon brightened as Lisa clapped her hands.  
  
"Pretty good, sis," she commented, "you should write speeches for the President."  
  
Gina gave her sister a playful shove. Just then, Nekomon's ears perked up.  
  
"What is it Nekomon?" Lisa asked, noticing her partners' actions.  
  
Nekomon twitched his ears.  
  
"Someone's coming," was all he said.  
  
That was when the sisters heard footsteps approaching.  
  
"Uh-oh, it's Mom," Gina said, panicking, "she must be checking on us."  
  
Lisa turned to the Digimon.  
  
"Act like toys," she whispered as the door handle began to turn.  
  
Mrs. Miller came in a moment later to see her two daughters sitting on Gina's bed, smiling at her.  
  
"Hey, Mom!" both greeted in unison.  
  
Mrs. Miller blinked.  
  
"Hi. All ready to go?" she asked.  
  
Both girls nodded as Mrs. Miller looked around the room. Her eyes fell on two small figures in the room. A couple of cats: a red one and an orange one. Both were staring blankly ahead at her. Mrs. Miller stared at them for a while before turning to her daughters.  
  
"What are those?" she asked.  
  
Lisa turned to Gina, expectantly. Gina cleared her throat.  
  
"Don't you remember Mom?" she asked, innocently, "they're a couple of the souveniers we bought at the 'The Wild Kingdom' at 'Disney World', y'know, from our trip last year?"  
  
Mrs. Miller blinked again in confusion and stared at the two cats again.  
  
"They are?" she asked, looking hard at the two cats.  
  
Gina nodded, crossing her fingers behind her back.  
  
"Yeah, we decided to bring them with us," she continued, "is that okay?"  
  
Mrs. Miller nodded, though her eyes were still on the cats. Lisa could see that Gankomon was having a hard time holding the 'stuffed animal act' together and decided to distract Mom before 'she' noticed too.  
  
"Hey, Mom? Can you help me with something first?" she piped up.  
  
Mrs. Miller turned to her daughter.  
  
"Yes, what is it?" she asked, concerned.  
  
Lisa got up and went over to her mother, taking her by the arm.  
  
"It's my clothes," she said, hurriedly, "I wanted to know what I should wear on Monday."  
  
Mrs. Miller stared at her in confusion as she was led out of Gina's room. Gina sighed with relief as Gankomon collapsed onto Nekomon.  
  
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------  
  
Books-A-Million, 9:05 AM  
  
'Books-A-Million' was located on 2701 SW College Rd, in the 'Gaitway Plaza', right next to 'T.J. Max'. It took around fifteen to twenty minutes to get there and it was pretty busy that day. Most cars were parked in the shade of nearby trees while others parked close to the store itself. Mrs. Miller prefered the shade of a nearby tree, though that usually meant they'd all have to walk a ways to get to the entrance. Next to the bookstore was 'Auto Express', a car repair store or something along that line. Gina didn't know, mainly because she never went over there. It was hardly ever busy from what she saw.  
  
The minute Mrs. Millers' bronze 'Ford Explorer' parked under a small tree, which was the families' regular parking spot, Gina hopped out of the van, Gankomon in her arms. The brunette paused a minute by the door to adjust her purple-rimmed, blue glass goggles that she wore on her head, before continuing towards the big, tan building. Gankomon looked up at the bookstore in wonder.  
  
"Wow," he mumbled, "that's one big hut."  
  
Gina rolled her eyes.  
  
"It's a store," she corrected.  
  
"A what?" Gankomon asked, looking up at his partner.  
  
"A store," Gina repeated, hopping up on the building's patio, "it's where you buy stuff."  
  
Gankomon was still confused, but didn't bother asking this time. Gina hesitated by the door to wait for her Mom and sister to catch up. Lisa ran over, looking both ways first to make sure no cars were coming, and dashed up onto the patio with Nekomon in her arms. Mrs. Miller was a ways away, checking the contents of her purse. Both girls waited for her, Lisa glanced down at her waist as she did so. Gina had talked her into bringing her D- Arc and Card Holder. She had her Card Holder on the left side of her jeans and her D-Arc on her right. Gina also had her copper-orange D-Arc and Card Holder with her, both in the same positions on her jeans as on her sisters'.  
  
(She said 'just in case',) Lisa thought, (what did she mean?)  
  
Shaking the thought away, she turned to her sister.  
  
"Are you 'sure' this'll work?" she asked, nervously.  
  
Gina nodded.  
  
"Don't worry sis," she said, "I thought it through myself."  
  
Lisa looked at her sister, skeptically.  
  
"I just hope nobody notices that they're real," she grumbled, "otherwise, we'll be in 'major' trouble."  
  
Gina rolled her eyes.  
  
(Why does my sister always have to be so negative?) she thought, (she's been like this since I was born, practically.)  
  
Both Digimon froze as Mrs. Miller walked up.  
  
"Okay, let's head in," she announced, opening the door, "remember, 9:45 is the latest we're staying. I've got friends coming over for lunch and I want to be ready."  
  
Both girls nodded as they followed their mother inside. They were met by a cool wave of air from the buildings' air condition. Books-A-Million was packed with books and bookstands. From pre-school to adult literature, this bookstore seemed to have it all. To the right of the store upon coming in, there was a small cafe' for adults. Gankomon gaped at all the books while Nekomon seemed to stare at the selection with a faint interest.  
  
"This place is 'huge'," Gankomon whispered, loudly.  
  
"It has to be to hold all these books," Nekomon stated.  
  
Both girls separated from their mother and headed for the 'Intermediate and Young Adults' sections. Lisa and Nekomon headed for the 'Young Adults' section while Gina and her partner went into the section for 'Intermediate'. After making sure no one was looking, Gina placed Gankomon on the carpeted floor, and started to look around. Gankomon stood up and looked around. He stared at the display of books before him in awe.  
  
"Woah, I had no idea there were so many of these 'book things'," he commented, looking at the book series 'Broken Sky'.  
  
Gina looked down at her partner and nodded as she picked up a book from the 'Avalon: Quest for Magic' series.  
  
"There are," she said, and examined the book she had, "and this is one book I 'don't' have. I think I'll get it."  
  
Gankomon walked over to her and, for a moment, Gina panicked. Somebody didn't see him walk, did they?  
  
"What is it?" Gankomon asked, staring at the colorful book his partner was holding.  
  
After looking around, Gina turned back to her partner.  
  
"It's a book about human girls who do magic," she explained, holding up her book, "this is the second book that was written about them. Sorta. And it's not a part of my collection, so I'll buy it."  
  
Gankomon cocked his head to one side and then remembered all the books Gina had in her room and shrugged.  
  
"Whatever you say," he said, turning to look at some of the books on the shelf he was by.  
  
Elsewhere, a couple aisles down, Lisa and Nekomon were looking at some books that were a bit more mature. Nekomon glanced at the selection Lisa was looking at.  
  
"These are the books you prefer?" he asked, looking up at his partner.  
  
Lisa nodded as she picked out an, 'Alias' book.  
  
"Yeah," she said, turning the book around to check the summary.  
  
Nekomon looked around and observed all the books on the shelves.  
  
"I've never seen books like these," he stated, flatly.  
  
Lisa looked down at him.  
  
"Well, I guess human literature is different from Digimon literature," she guessed, "why, what were the books you read in the.........uh.........Digital World about?"  
  
Nekomon flicked his tail back and forth as he stared at the book she was looking at.  
  
"Mostly about the types of Digimon, the regions of the Digital World, and legends," he named off, still staring at the book his partner held, "nothing about, um, 'Alias'."  
  
Lisa giggled.  
  
"It's 'Alias', ee-es, not eye-as," she corrected.  
  
Nekomon stared at his partner and shrugged in a feline manner as she went back to reading. He then turned his attention to the aisle across from him and observed the books there. Lisa, looking up from the summary, stared over at her partner. She acted so normal around him, as if she knew him all her life when they had just met last night. Even though she wasn't as good at handling 'out of wack' situations like her sister, she was taking this all pretty well.  
  
(Maybe I 'will' get used to this,) she figured, placing the book back on the shelf. She already had that one anyway.  
  
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------  
  
Outside, 9:15 AM  
  
Out in the open space between 'Books-A-Million' and 'Auto Express', where there were just a few parked cars, an unexpected thing took place. Right in the center of the narrow road, a bright white beam of light shot up from the ground. Ripples of purple light expanded outwards from the bottom, though they didn't do any damage. From the bright beam, a magenta colored fog began to expand outwards until it had covered a good stretch of the narrow strip of road. The light disappeared and, even though it was out in the open, people were too busy to take notice. But two people from across the chain of stores took notice...............as did a couple of their friends in their mothers' car.  
  
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------  
  
Back inside the store, Gina had taken Gankomon into the stores' 'Kid Train', or at least that's what 'she' called it. Since the section she was in was right next to the little kid books, it had something extra for them. Outside the book aisles was a purple train with an overhang and two or three sets of seats. In front of the seats was a TV where movies, mostly 'Disney' movies, were shown to little kids who came in. Right now, like some days, the TV was turned off and that suited Gina just fine. She could read a bit of her book in peace. Though she only got the chance to read a page when she heard a beeping noise.  
  
"Huh?" she said, closing the book and looking around, "whazzat?"  
  
Gankomon didn't reply. He was looking towards the front of the store, ears perked up, and eyes narrowed. Gina noticed this and ignored the beeping noise for the moment.  
  
"What's wrong Gankomon?" she asked, the beeping still ringing in her ears.  
  
Gankomon turned to her, brown-red eyes narrowed.  
  
"A Digimon," was all he said.  
  
Gina's chocolate brown eyes widened.  
  
"Say what?!" she gasped.  
  
"Gina!"  
  
Gina turned to see Lisa run out from the aisle she was in. Gina waved to her, showing her where she was.  
  
"Sis, what is it?" she asked as her sister ran over to the train, Nekomon hot on her heels.  
  
Lisa held up her D-Arc. Gina gasped as she saw the screen. It was flashing blue and beeping!  
  
"This thing started to go off and then Nekomon started acting funny," Lisa said, sounding nervous, "what's wrong with it?"  
  
Gina stared at the digivice for a minute before glancing at Nekomon. Sure enough, the small lion wasn't acting as he usually did. His ears were up and his fur was standing on end. He looked like he was about to pounce on something. Remembering the beeping sound around her, Gina fumbled for 'her' D-Arc, and swallowed hard when she saw that is was flashing and beeping too.  
  
"What does this mean?" Lisa asked.  
  
Gina looked up at her sister, sharply.  
  
"A Digimon's coming," she said, firmly.  
  
Lisa's eyes seemed to bug out.  
  
"Wha?!" she gasped, but Gina had scooped up Gankomon, and was heading for the door. "Sis, wait!"  
  
Scooping up Nekomon, Lisa followed after her sister. Gina, halfway to the exit, glanced down at Gankomon.  
  
"Do you know where the Digimon is?" she asked him.  
  
Gankomon's ears twitched.  
  
"Outside somewhere," he told her.  
  
Lisa was a bit behind her sister, making sure their Mom, who was by a 'Cooking' section, didn't see them. Gina ran out the door with Lisa now close behind. Both instantly spotted the fog. It sat there, unmoving, right between the bookstore and 'Auto Express'. Lisa gaped at the sight.  
  
"It's just like the same fog last night," she mumbled.  
  
Gina nodded and stared at it with her partner. After a while, she headed towards it.  
  
"Sis, what are you 'doing'?!" Lisa demanded, running after her.  
  
Gina hesitated and looked her sister straight in the eye.  
  
"I'm going in," she said.  
  
Lisa was taken aback.  
  
"Say WHAT?!" she cried, "no way! We don't know what's in there!"  
  
Gina narrowed her eyes.  
  
"Yes, sis, we do," she stated, "it's a Digimon. We have to investigate."  
  
Lisa was in a state between believing and not believing what was happening.  
  
"It's probably just regular fog," she insisted.  
  
In her arms, Nekomon shook his head.  
  
"No," he disagreed, "it's a Digital Field."  
  
Gankomon nodded.  
  
"There's a Digimon inside," he said, his ears twitching like mad, "I can feel it."  
  
Lisa bit her lip.  
  
"Is it friendly?" she asked, nervously.  
  
Gankomon shrugged while Gina slid her goggles over her eyes.  
  
"We'll soon find out," she said, letting Gankomon down.  
  
Before Lisa could say anything, both her sister and Gankomon were running into the immense fog. They soon disappeared from view. Lisa stared at it for a while as Nekomon squirmed out of her arms and onto the ground.  
  
"Aren't you going to follow?" he inquired, looking up at his partner.  
  
Lisa looked at him and then at her D-Arc that had been in her hand the whole time. She stared at it for what seemed like forever before looking back at the pinkish-purple fog. She turned to her partner with a 'what-the- heck' look.  
  
"Might as well," she said, fishing in her jeans' pocket, "she 'is' my little sister after all."  
  
Nekomon nodded. Lisa pulled out a pair of sunglasses that she always carried with her. The lens' and lining were black, like the kind the actors in 'the Matrix' wore. She slipped them on and gave Nekomon a nervous smile.  
  
"Let's go, Nekomon," she said.  
  
With that, Lisa and her lion cub partner ran straight into the Digital Field.  
  
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------  
  
Digital Field, 9:22 AM  
  
Gina and her feline partner emerged on the other side of the Digital Field in only a few seconds. Putting her goggles back on top of her head, Gina looked up. Her eyes widened at what she saw in front of her.  
  
It looked around 5 foot, 9 inches tall and had a round body covered with grayish fur. It had round ears, like a bear, and its wild yellow eyes stared at her through drooping fur. Its arms and legs were almost as long as its body and ended in five, ape-like fingers. It looked like a squat abomidable snowman with lots of furry hair and sharp teeth. It was in the center of the fog, glaring in her direction, sharp teeth bared. Gankomon bared his teeth and hissed in response. Gina, eyes still on the Digimon, brought up her D-Arc, which was still in her hand. The screen beeped and a picture of the furry Digimon popped out in a blue, holographic circle.  
  
Mojyamon  
  
Level: Champion  
  
Type: Rare Animal Digimon  
  
Attribute: Vaccine  
  
Attack(s): Bone Boomerang, Ice Cloud  
  
Information: A Digimon native to the snowy mountains; hardly ever aggressive.  
  
The hologram disappeared and Gina looked back up at the furry Digimon.  
  
(Looks aggressive to me,) she thought, nervously, (this guy looked nicer on TV.)  
  
The Mojyamon snarled and turned fully in her direction. Gina tensed as Gankomon continued to hiss. At the sound of someone behind her, Gina turned to see Lisa and Nekomon run into the Digital Field.  
  
"Lisa!" she cried, happily, "you came."  
  
Lisa stopped beside her sister and took off her sunglasses.  
  
"I couldn't let you do this alone," she said, then spotted Mojyamon, "Holy Cow! What's that?!"  
  
Gina turned back to the Digimon.  
  
"It's a Mojyamon," she said, "and it doesn't look like he's here for a nice visit."  
  
The Mojyamon narrowed his eyes at the girls and roared a humanish-sounding roar. Gankomon and Nekomon both assumed fighting stances for cats. Lisa swallowed hard and stepped back. Gina, on the other hand, took a step forward.  
  
"Why are you here?" she asked the wild Digimon, trying to sound calmer than she was.  
  
"Sis, don't talk to it," Lisa squeaked, more nervous now.  
  
The Mojyamon glared at her. He didn't look at 'all' happy.  
  
"None of your business you weak human," it/he snarled.  
  
Gina swallowed.  
  
"Look, we shouldn't fight," she said, "there's no reason to-"  
  
The Mojyamon roared again. Gina took a nervous step back. Lisa covered her ears. Both their partners tensed.  
  
"I don't take orders from a HUMAN!!" the Mojyamon roared.  
  
With that, the large Digimon charged at the two girls and two cats at a trudge-like run, but it was still fast. Gina was now as nervous as her sister was. Before either girls could react, both Gankomon and Nekomon leapt forward, charging the yeti-like Digimon.  
  
"Gankomon!" Gina cried, alarmed at her partners' sudden movement.  
  
"Nekomon!" Lisa cried, desperately, after her partner.  
  
Both digital cats ran at the charging Digimon. Gankomon looked ready to beat him up. Even Nekomons' blank expression was replaced by slight annoyance. The approaching groups looked like they'd collide with each other when Mojyamon drew back his fist and, with a roar, punched at the two cats. But the duo split up at the last minute, Gankomon going left and Nekomon going right. Mojyamon, after a quick debate, went after Nekomon. The small red lion turned to face the Chamion level as he came at him with a raised fist.  
  
"Nekomon, run!" Lisa cried out in panic.  
  
Nekomon waited until the last minute, allowing Mojyamon to throw the punch, but jumping back to avoid it. Mojyamons' fist slammed into the road, creating large cracks.........and leaving himself open to attack. Nekomon wasted no time. Standing still, the wind around him began to hum, and rings of white light came up from the ground under him. Pink lotus petals joined the light and soon formed a tornado around the lion cub.  
  
"Woah," Gina and Lisa both breathed in unison, amazed at the sight.  
  
Nekomon turned his navy blue gaze towards Mojyamon and shouted two simple words:  
  
"Lotus Storm!"  
  
The petal tornado moved away from him at a high speed and, before he could even react, slammed into Mojyamon. Bellowing loudly, the yeti Digimon fell to the ground as petals flew everywhere. Lisa stared at her partner in surprise.  
  
(I didn't know he could do that,) she thought.  
  
Mojyamon quickly recovered and climbed to his feet. Before he could aim another punch at Nekomon.........  
  
"Sonic Jab!"  
  
Gankomon came flying at the small yeti, his right paw curled into a fist, and it seemed to be surrounded by some invisible force. Mojyamon turned around just in time to see Gankomon's paw smash into his nose. Mojyamon roared and swatted the smaller cat away.  
  
"Gankomon, no!" Gina cried in fright, watching her partner sail through the air.  
  
Gankomon twisted in midair and landed on his hind legs. He grit his teeth and glared at Mojyamon.  
  
"Oooh, you're gonna get it now," he growled, lifting up both paws in front of him.  
  
His claws began to glow a blue color, almost as blue as his tail and ear tufts. They began to crackle with electricity as Gankomon lifted them over his head. Mojyamon growled in annoyance and charged at the Rookie. But Gankomon had other ideas.  
  
"Thunder Claw!"  
  
Slashing his paws downwards, the energy in Gankomon's claws were released into six vertical arcs of electric energy. They hit Mojyamon head-on, causing him to roar in pain. The yeti recovered a couple second later and growled at Gankomon.  
  
"Why aren't they putting any dents in him?" Gina wondered aloud, "I mean, they've been giving them all they've got."  
  
Mojyamon continued his charge at Gankomon, but the digi-cat simply ran between the Champions' legs to escape, causing his opponent to stumble a bit.  
  
"I think it's because he's too big," Lisa pointed out, trying to remain calm, "and he's probably stronger than they are since he's at a higher level."  
  
Gina grit her teeth and watched her partner in worry. Meanwhile, Nekomon had leapt on Mojyamons' back, and was digging his unsheathed black claws into him. Mojyamon roared in anger and reached behind him. In one simple movement, the giant plucked a squirming Nekomon off of his back, and threw him across the field. Gankomon ran on all fours to catch up with him and break his fall. As the two cats struggled to untangle themselves and stand, Mojyamon approached them, growling.  
  
"Gankomon!" Gina cried, more than frightened now.  
  
"Nekomon, get up!" Lisa cried, clutching her D-Arc.  
  
The two cats turned to the girls, but stared into the face of Mojyamon instead. Gankomon snarled up at him while Nekomon did nothing. Smiling in triumph, Mojymon raised his fist to smash them when a golden blur slammed into his left side. With a roar, he fell to the pavement. His attacker stood in front of him. Both the cats and the girls stared at the newcomer.  
  
It was a Digimon, no doubt about that. It was the size of an average German Shepard and was obviously a cheetah. It had golden yellow fur with sparkling blue spots and a long, lashing tail with a blue tip. On all four of its legs, around the ankle area, were blue cuff-like bracelets. Its eyes were a bright, emerald green and were big. The two cats stared at it in surprise while Gina fumbled for her D-Arc.  
  
"Who is that?" Lisa asked.  
  
Gina brought up her D-Arc and fixed it on the cheetah, who was grinning at his handy-work. A holographic picture of the cheetah popped out of the D- Arc with the following information:  
  
Cheetahmon  
  
Level: Rookie  
  
Type: Animal Digimon  
  
Attribute: Vaccine  
  
Attack(s): Golden Fire  
  
Information: A rare Digimon usually found in open fields, very friendly.  
  
As the hologram was sucked back into her D-Arc, Mojyamon rose from the ground and glared at the new Digimon. Gankomon glanced over at him and blinked.  
  
"I take it you're on our side?" he asked.  
  
The emerald-eyed cheetah turned to him and smiled.  
  
"Yep," it/he replied, in a bright, friendly sounding voice.  
  
Gina and Lisa were staring at the new Digimon in surprise, when a new sound reached their ears.  
  
"Cheetahmon!"  
  
"Mark, wait!"  
  
Both girls turned to see three more figures enter the fog. A boy came through first. He had sandy blond hair and hazel eyes. He wore a yellow shirt with white sleeves, light blue jeans, and white 'Adidas', like what Gina wore. In his hands, to the girls' surprise, was a silver and yellow D- Arc. He stared at Cheetahmon in concern, then he noticed the two girls watching him, and turned in their direction.  
  
"Uh, hey," he greeted, a little surprised.  
  
Lisa was too surprised for words, but Gina nodded in acknowledgement. Then, two more figures came through the fog. One was a girl, shorter than the boy was. She had dirty blond hair that was tied up in a ponytail and blue eyes. She wore a light blue shirt with a leather jacket over it, dark blue capris that stopped on her knees, and gray sneakers. She looked Gina's age, while the boy looked a year older. The girl had a silver and pink D-Arc attached to one side of her pants and a Card Holder, like the boys', on the other. She looked up at the boy, noticed that he was looking at something, and turned to see the girls. She only stared.  
  
Besides her was the second figure, a Digimon. It was about the same size, nearly, as the cheetah. It was a small, pink pony with a pair of pink, feathered Pegasus wings. It had a light blue mane and tail, with a pink ribbon tied into a bow around the tail, cat-like ears, a short muzzle, and bright lavender eyes. It looked exactly like a 'My Little Pony' and reached the other girls' thigh. It was obviously her partner. Its eyes were focused on the Mojyamon. Gina stared at it and turned to Gankomon.  
  
"Gankomon, turn this way," she instructed, raising her D-Arc.  
  
Gankomon did as he was told, although he was a little confused, and blinked in surprise at the Pegasus Digimon. The minute his eyes locked on it, the flying horses' picture popped out of Gina's D-Arc.  
  
Pegamon  
  
Level: Rookie  
  
Type: Mythical Animal Digimon  
  
Attribute: Vaccine  
  
Attack(s): Rainbow Kiss  
  
Information: A cheerful Digimon that is a fierce warrior inside of battle.  
  
The picture disappeared and Gina looked up at the two kids.  
  
"Can I ask who you two are?" she asked, uncertainly.  
  
The boy was about to answer when the Mojyamon roared again. The girl turned to it and then to Gina and Lisa as her partner headed to join the three cats.  
  
"Can we talk later, maybe?" she asked.  
  
Gina turned back to the fight and saw that the Mojyamon was advancing on their partners. Gankomon and Nekomon stood up and joined the two new Digimon in fighting stances. Gina nodded at the girl and all four kids watched as the Mojyamon charged at their partner Digimon full speed. All four tensed until the yeti was over them. Mojyamon drew back his fist and punched forward. The three cats split up while the pink Pegasus leapt into the air. With a few beats of its wings, it was airborne.  
  
"Up here you smelly ball of fur!" it/she shouted at Mojyamon in a high, feminine voice.  
  
The Mojyamon looked up.  
  
"Who're you calling smelly?!" it bellowed.  
  
The pink Pegasus smiled.  
  
"You!" she replied and readied her attack.  
  
Her muzzle, especially around her lips, began to shimmer in rainbow colors before she puckered her lips inwardly.  
  
"Rainbow Kiss!"  
  
Pegamon pushed her lips outward, making a smooching sound, and five hearts, the size of CD roms, made from rainbow light flew from her muzzle. They all hit Mojyamon right in the face. The yeti roared and covered his eyes (where a good fraction of the hearts hit). As he did so, Gankomon ran behind him and clenched his right paw. It was surrounded by an invisible force as the copper-orange cat leapt upwards.  
  
"Sonic Jab!" Gankomon cried, socking the Mojyamon in back of the head with a paw.  
  
Mojyamon bellowed as he pitched forward. He caught himself just before falling and glared at the Digimon.  
  
"I've had enough!" he cried, holding out an ape-like hand.  
  
A tanned, boomerang-shaped bone appeared in his hand, the size of a human arm. He took aim at Gankomon and threw it.  
  
"Bone Boomerang!"  
  
The bone spun towards Gankomon who merely ducked it. He grinned at Mojyamon.  
  
"Ha! Missed me!" he shouted.  
  
But he didn't see the boomerang double back towards him. But Gina did.  
  
"Look out, Gankomon!" she cried, pointing at the boomerang.  
  
"Huh?" Gankomon asked, and turned around.........to be smacked in the face, "YOW!"  
  
Gankomon fell on his back as Mojyamon grabbed his returning boomerang. Not wasting a moment, Mojyamon spun around and hurled it at Pegamon, who was caught by surprise.  
  
SMACK!  
  
"Ow!" she whinnied and fell out of the sky.  
  
"Pegamon!" the new girl cried, running to her partner.  
  
The boys' eyes widened.  
  
"Diana, no!" he shouted. Too late.  
  
The boomerang returned to Mojyamon and, with a smile, he hurled it towards the girl. She didn't see it coming, but like before, Gina did.  
  
"LOOK OUT!" she shouted, running for the girl.  
  
With a last minute leap, she tackled the girl, knocking both of them to the ground. Gina froze as she felt the boomerang whiz by twice over her.  
  
"Diana!" the boy and Pegamon cried in unison.  
  
"Gina!" Lisa and Gankomon cried together.  
  
Both girls got up, the blond girl breathing hard. Gina looked at her to make sure she was okay, then turned angrily to the Mojyamon.  
  
"What was that for?!" she shouted, "we haven't done anything to you!"  
  
The Mojyamon caught his boomerang and snarled.  
  
"Humans are weak and pathetic!" he shouted, taking aim again with his boomerang, "they don't deserve to rule this world! Bone Boomerang!"  
  
The minute he threw the boomerang, Cheetahmon opened his mouth toward it. A fiery, golden light formed inside.  
  
"Golden Fire!"  
  
A semi-round, bright yellow fireball the size of a soccer ball flew at the boomerang and collided with it. It shattered before it even reached the girls.  
  
"Humans aren't weak OR pathetic!" Cheetahmon snapped, "these humans are our friends!"  
  
Gankomon stood up and glared at Mojyamon.  
  
"Yeah, and if you're gonna try and hurt Gina, you gotta go through me first!" he hissed, raising his claws.  
  
Gina blinked in surprise at how Gankomon was defending her like that. They had just met yesterday. The Mojyamon, on the other hand, growled at the two cats.  
  
"You are fools!" he cried, "I'll destroy you along with these humans!"  
  
With that, he charged towards Gankomon with both fists raised. Suddenly, Gina jumped to her feet, and her right hand instantly went for her Card Holder on the left side of her jeans. She undid the clasp and felt for a card.  
  
"Nobody threatens 'my' partner!" Gina shouted, bringing the card she selected up in front of her face to read it. On it was a black disk with an 'O' on the top right side.  
  
With her left hand, she raised her D-Arc in front on her, horizontally. The screen glowed blue as she held the card parallel to the slot. With a swift movement, Gina slid the card through the slot. Light flashed from the slot as the information on the card was read.  
  
"Card Slash!" Gina suddenly yelled, whipping the card through the D-Arc and whipping her arms out like she was about to fly, "Strength Activate!"  
  
The information, through the link with the D-Arc and partner, downloaded itself into Gankomon. He briefly glowed copper and leapt at Mojyamon. With a hiss-like battle cry, he punched the yeti in the nose with a paw. Mojyamon cried out and fell backwards as the small cat forward kicked him in the chin. All the other kids and Digimon stared in surprise at the sight. The girl, Diana, looked up at Gina.  
  
"Wow, that was cool," she said, "how'd you do that?"  
  
Gina blinked. She really didn't know herself. But then she remembered just what the D-Arcs could do and turned to everyone.  
  
"We can help the Digimon with these!" she called to her sister and the boy, holding up her D-Arc, "just do what I did!"  
  
Lisa looked confused, but the boy looked thoughtful. He glanced at his Card Holder and D-Arc and turned to Lisa.  
  
"It's worth a shot," he said.  
  
Lisa stared at him and then at Mojyamon, who was just beginning to stand. She spotted Nekomon running in his direction and felt the same impulse as her sister did. She undid her Card Holders' clasp with her right hand and felt for a card.  
  
"O-okay!" she cried, suddenly feeling braver as she stared at her card. It had a dark blue disk on it with a 'B' on the top right side.  
  
She grabbed her D-Arc with her left hand and held it and the card vertically parallel to one another. She then slid the card through the slot, releasing light.  
  
"Card Slash!" she cried, whipping the card upwards through the slot and bringing her D-Arc downwards, "Speed Activate!"  
  
Nekomon seemed to glow a faint red as he began to speed up in his run and, with a mighty high-speed leap, slammed into Mojyamon. The yeti crashed to the ground again, snarling. Lisa's eyes widened as she glanced at the card she just slashed.  
  
(Woah, it's almost like I knew what to do,) she thought.  
  
Mojyamon roared and climbed to his feet. The boy had other ideas. He reached into his Card Holder with his right hand and pulled out a card.  
  
"I don't think so, ape breath!" he shouted, looking at the card he pulled out. It was a red disk with an 'A' in the top right side.  
  
He took his D-Arc with his left hand brought it over his head. He turned it so that the slot was above his head, where he could see it a bit better, and lifted the card to the slot. He slid it through the slot, light flashing.  
  
"Card Slash!" he cried, whipping the card and D-Arc down to his sides, "Power Activate!"  
  
Cheetahmon smiled as he briefly glowed yellow.  
  
"Thanks Mark!" he shouted to his Tamer, "Golden Fire!"  
  
The yellow fireball flew at Mojyamon, who hardly had any time to block. The fire burned the shaggy fur on his arms and had hurt him quite a bit. He turned to the boy, Mark, and raised a hand over his head. A frosty wind gathered over it and an icicle, practically as gig as he was, formed.  
  
"Ice Cloud!" he bellowed, and hurled it at the boy.  
  
The boy froze as the girl jumped up, eyes wide.  
  
"Mark!" she cried, right hand going for her Card Holder.  
  
She selected a card at light-speed and glanced at it. It looked the same as the boys'. She positioned her D-Arc just like the boy did and slid the card through the slot with her pointer and index finger. Light flashed on her face as she swiped it through.  
  
"Card Slash!" she cried, in a hurry, whipping the card and D-Arc down like the boy did, "Power Activate!"  
  
The minute Pegamon glowed pink, the new data downloaded, she quickly aimed for the icicle.  
  
"Rainbow Kiss!"  
  
The hearts struck the icicle and shattered it into nothing. The boy took deep breathes to recover from his fright as his partner glared at Mojyamon in anger.  
  
"That does it!" he cried, opening his mouth at the Mojyamon, "you're history!"  
  
"I second that!" Pegamon added, her muzzle glowing.  
  
Mojyamon turned to them just as their attacks were released.  
  
"Golden Fire!"  
  
"Rainbow Kiss!"  
  
The powered up fireball and heart storm hit their mark, sending the Mojyamon tumbling backwards. He had just regained his footing, when.........  
  
"Lotus Storm!"  
  
.........a tornado of lotus petals slammed into him from behind, sending him flying a few feet. With a bellow, he crashed into the road, face first. The girl ran to the recovering boy and hugged him tight.  
  
"Oh my gosh! That was too close," she gasped, "are you okay?"  
  
The boy looked down at the girl.  
  
"Are you?" he asked.  
  
She looked up at him and nodded while Gina and Lisa gathered around them.  
  
"Who'd of thought a giant furball would be so scary," Lisa commented.  
  
Gina shrugged as their Digimon joined them.  
  
"I guess not all Digimon on friendly," she guessed.  
  
Cheetahmon ran up to his Tamer, nearly knocking him over.  
  
"You okay buddy?" he whined, worriedly.  
  
The boy nodded as Pegamon looked up at all the kids with shiny lavender eyes.  
  
"I suggest we all get out of here," she said.  
  
"Good idea," all the kids said in unison, but before they could go anywhere.........  
  
"HRRRROOOAAAARRRR!!"  
  
The Tamers and their partners turned to see Mojyamon stand up, fur charred in four places due to the Digimons' attacks, and glare at them. With another bellow, he charged at the group, fists raised. But Gankomon reacted fast. He jumped in front of the group and raised his claws as they glowed with electricity.  
  
"Thunder Claw!"  
  
Six vertical arcs of electricity flew into Mojyamon, electrocuting him. Mojyamon roared as he weakened under the powered-up attack and, to all the kids' amazement, disintegrated into small particles of red data. Gankomon spread his arms and closed his eyes as a coppery-orange aura emitted from him. The loose data that was once Mojyamon turned blue as they floated towards Gankomon. The copper Gatomon's aura sucked the data into himself and added a level of power to the little rookie. When all the data was gone, Gankomon's aura faded, and he turned to the group of Tamers. He smiled and gave his Tamer a 'thumbs-up'.  
  
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------------  
  
9:40 AM  
  
The fog between 'Books-A-Million' and 'Auto Express' faded away and revealed the four Tamers, their Digimon, and five sets of cracks in the ground, caused by Mojyamon. After a quick look around, the kids and their partners, all ran onto the patio and the kids formed a circle to hide the Digimon. Gina smiled at the other to kids.  
  
"Thanks for your help," she said, extending a hand, "I doubt we could've won without you."  
  
The boy smiled and shook her hand.  
  
"Thanks, same here," he said, "and thanks for saving my sister."  
  
Gina smiled and nodded as Lisa turned to them.  
  
"I'm Lisa Miller and this is my sister, Gina," she said.  
  
The boy nodded as he and Gina parted hands.  
  
"Nice to meet you," he said, "I'm Mark Renalds and this is my sister, Diana." He then glanced down at his Digimon. "And you've already met Cheetahmon and Pegamon."  
  
The pink Pegasus smiled while the cheetah waved a paw.  
  
"And you've met Gankomon and Nekomon," Gina said, indicating to her and her sisters' partners.  
  
Nekomon nodded while Gankomon waved.  
  
"This is SO cool," Diana said, "and here we thought we were the only ones with Digimon."  
  
Gina giggled.  
  
"That's what we thought too," she admitted.  
  
Mark glanced over across the chain of stores.  
  
"Hey, Diana, I think we'd better head back before Mom notices that we're gone," he suggested.  
  
Lisa looked into the glass doors of 'Books-A-Million'.  
  
"Yeah, and I think we should go back inside before Mom thinks someone kidnapped us," she told her sister.  
  
Diana glanced down at her and her brothers' Digimon.  
  
"You guys think you can find the car?" she asked.  
  
Both nodded. Mark glanced at them in question.  
  
"How'd you two get out anyway?" he asked.  
  
Cheetahmon gave a feline shrug.  
  
"Diana left the window open," he said, simply, "it's hot in that thing."  
  
The kids laughed as the Digimon ran across the road.  
  
"See ya!" Pegamon called over her shoulder.  
  
Mark turned to the Miller sisters and smiled.  
  
"I hope we meet again," he said.  
  
The girls nodded as he and his sister began to head back to where they had been before.  
  
"Bye!" Diana called, waving to them.  
  
Gina, Lisa, and Gankomon waved back while Nekomon merely watched them go. Lisa turned to her sister.  
  
"I guess we're not alone," she spoke up.  
  
Gina turned to her.  
  
"I guess not," she agreed with a smile.  
  
Gankomon looked up at them.  
  
"Do you think we'll see them again?" he asked.  
  
Gina shrugged and scooped him up.  
  
"I dunno, but I sure do hope so," she said, happily looking at the drifting clouds.  
  
Lisa nodded in agreement as she scooped up Nekomon. Together, they headed back inside the bookstore.  
  
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- ----------------------------  
  
Pronouncing and Meaning  
  
Chee-tah-mon – As in the animal, the cheetah.  
  
Peg-ah-mon – As in the mythical flying horse, Pegasus.  
  
Moh-jee-ah-mon – Comes from 'Mojamoja', it means 'hairy' in Japanese.  
  
---------------------------------------------------------------------------- -------------------------  
  
Gack! (falls over out of exhaustion) Working on two fics at the same time can't be too healthy. "ahem" Anyway, that's the second chapter of 'Digimon Defenders', I hope you liked it. Now that Gina and Lisa have discovered that there are more Tamers out there, how'll this affect their daily life? Please R&R, no flames please! 


	3. Tamer's Together

Digimon Defenders  
  
Disclaimer: A pile of textbooks and schedules comes into view, then explodes to reveal DayDreamer9 holding a new chapter of "Digimon Defenders" underneath  
  
FINALLY!!! I never thought I'd be free of school!  
  
(Notices readers and clears throat)  
  
Hi! I'm SO sorry for not updating in a hurry, I went as fast as I could, honest. I've had writer's block, plus school and Finals got in the way. Did I mention my folks are also planning on moving? I also want to apologize if I made my stories too detailed. It's just that I've always been told that you should write about something as if the person reading it has never heard of it before, or something along that line. Here, Gina and Lisa get to spend the day with their new Tamer friends. I don't own Digimon, it's the property of Saban (I think) and Toei Animations. I DO own the Tamers and their families (sorta), their partners, and the crests (which will soon appear). The modify cards and what they look like are based after the cards I found on the cool site, 'Shining Celebi' which has now moved to 'Digimon: The Shining Evolution'.  
  
Chapter 3: Tamers Together  
  
February 7, 2004 – Saturday, 10:25 AM  
  
'Summerton South' was a 'gated community' along 38th St. A lot of houses were constructed within the gray walls, most of their roofs appearing above the top of the wall. It was a 'housing development' that was made about a couple years ago. The fancy gate that could only be opened by typing in an access code and double name plaques on opposite walls at the entrance made it appear ritzy, but it was just an average development. At this point in time, a white 'Crysler Seabring' stopped by the front gate, its driver typing in the access code, and making the large gate slowly open. Once fully opened, the car drove into the development. It drove straight in, turning to the right after a certain distance, and drove down a road to the end of that street.  
  
The house it stopped near was a big gray house with a dark, shingled roof. It looked like a two-story, but it was only a one-story. A part of it jutted out towards the street on the left side, creating room for the garage on that part of the house. A statue of a girl was on the front lawn and a driveway was to the left, curving up and to the left into the garage that faced the house besides this one. On the driveway was a black pick-up. A stretch of flowers followed the path to the front door, which was quite a ways away. In back of the house was a small pond and a screened-in porch connecting to the back of the house.  
  
The minute the car drove into the driveway, besides the black pick-up, it stopped, and the driver got out. It was a woman who appeared to be in her early forties. She was a bit short and wore her dull brown hair in a ponytail. She was dressed casually and held a tan pocket book as she stepped out of the car and went to the passengers' side. She opened the door on the right and looked inside at her two children: a boy with sandy blond hair and hazel eyes and a girl with dirty blond hair and blue eyes.  
  
"Okay, everybody out," she said, reaching for one of the shopping bags she had put in the back seat, "and help me carry these bags inside."  
  
The two kids nodded as the woman, their mother, carried her package towards the front door. When she was halfway there, both of the kids began to lift the packages at their feet up, exposing a pair of figures who were hiding underneath.  
  
"Sorry we had to put this stuff on you guys," 13 year-old Mark Renalds apologized, "are you two okay?"  
  
One of the figures, a gold-yellow cheetah with glittering blue spots, raised his head, and looked up at his friend.  
  
"Yeah, no problem buddy," Cheetahmon said with a smile.  
  
The other figure, a pink Pegasus with lavender eyes, looked up as well. She gave Cheetahmon a glance.  
  
"Are you kidding? It was stuffy down there," Pegamon said, turning to the girl, "why couldn't I have just flown?"  
  
The girl smiled.  
  
"A lot of people would of freaked if they saw you, most likely," 12 year- old Diana Renalds replied.  
  
After giving a glance at the surrounding area and a quick look towards the front door, Mark ducked his head back into the car.  
  
"Okay sis, we gotta do this quick," he instructed, "I'll bring the stuff inside while you sneak the Digimon in through the back, 'kay?"  
  
Diana nodded and her brother quickly gathered up the bags from 'T.J. Max'. Once he had them, he made his way out of the milk white car. Once he made sure the coast was clear, he nodded to his sister as he headed for the front door. Diana scooted out of the car and motioned for the Digimon to follow. Cheetahmon crawled onto the seat and hopped out of the car while Pegamon half flew, half stumbled out. Once that was done, the dirty blond girl ran towards the screened-in porch and stopped by the side-screen door. She motioned to the Digimon to follow her. Both cat and pony ran to her side as Mark ran back to the car. He shut the open car door and turned to his sister, who gave him a 'thumbs-up' as she went into the porch, the Digimon behind her.  
  
Inside the screened-in porch was a rather large pool with a miniature waterfall on the left side. To the right of Diana and the pool was a patio, complete with a table surrounded by four chairs. To the right of the table was a litter box and food bowls with cat food and water inside, indication that there were cats in the Renalds' household. To the left were shelves that held a radio, a small stereo, and a collection of knick-knacks. Since Diana and Marks' Mom liked to collect things, half of the house was filled with knick-knacks. In back of the table was a wide glass screen that showed the living room. To the right was a sliding glass door that led to the kitchen. And to the left was a door that led to Diana and Marks' parents' room. Luckily, that wasn't where she planned on going.  
  
"Stay here for a sec," Diana told the Digimon, "I have to check on something."  
  
The two Digimon nodded as Diana went over to the glass door that led to the kitchen. She peeked inside to see if her mother was there. The kitchen was rather small compared to the rest of the house, although it connected to the second living room, which was complete with couches and a large TV. The kitchen was tiled, unlike the second living room, and had a table with a glass surface and four chairs surrounding it. A counter lined both sides of the wall next to it, making a small passage to the kitchen entrance, with another counter in the middle. A refrigerator was across from the table, which was near the glass kitchen door. A stove and sink were on Diana's side of the wall, built into the counters. On all of the counters were magazines, food that was left out, and the drawers and cupboards held food and silverware.  
  
But no sign of Mrs. Renalds.  
  
Diana slid the kitchen door open, it was always unlocked, and motioned the Digimon to come in. Cheetahmon dashed inside while Pegamon kept a steady pace next to her partner. Diana led them to the kitchen entrance and turned right, past the large, rectangular table in front of her. She led the way down the hallway where Marks' room, the bathroom, and her room were all located on the left side of the wall. A computer sat on the small desk to her right. It was mainly used by her, Mark, and their Mom. Their Dad had one in his study. Diana made a beeline for her room at the end of the hall and opened the door which had a piece of paper with a drawn picture of the face of a man with blue hair and writing at the top that said: 'THIS IS A YOUZEN SHRINE'.  
  
Diana's room had a Japanese/anime theme to it. In the middle of the room, sitting horizontally to Diana with its headboard against the left wall, was Diana's bed. It had a cream comforter and pillows. Across from the bed, against the right wall, was a medium sized bureau that had 'DBZ' action figures on top along with a jewelry box and a few pictures. A mirror was attached to it and faced the bed. On the wall overlooking Diana's bed was a poster of Japan: a picture of traditional Japanese dancers that her father had got for her on her birthday a couple years ago. A white closet, built into the wall, was across from Diana. On it, pictures and printouts of 'Senkaiden Houshin Engi' and 'Inuyasha' hung almost everywhere. On the wall that Diana's bedroom door was built into, facing her bed, was a 'DBZ' poster. A window was between the bed and the closet and on the other side of the bed was a nightstand, complete with a lamp, a radio alarm clock, and 'Super Saiyan Goku' action figure. In the right hand corner of Diana's room was what every kid must want in their rooms: a small TV with a 'Nintendo Game Cube' hooked up to it.  
  
But, despite all the ritzy-ness, the Renalds weren't rich.  
  
Diana went inside, almost being barreled over by Cheetahmon, with Pegamon behind her. With a sigh, she flopped down on her bed. Cheetahmon hopped up on the bed as well, smiling.  
  
"That trip gets funner and funner every time," he said.  
  
Diana cracked a blue eye open and stared up at him.  
  
"Glad you like sneaking around the house," she said, her voice muffled by the comforter, "but if my Mom had caught us, we'd be in serious trouble."  
  
A couple second later, Mark came into her room, alarming his sister. He closed the door and turned to the others.  
  
"Well," he breathed, removing the silver and yellow D-Arc from his jeans, "this was quite an interesting day."  
  
Diana pushed herself onto her elbows and took her silver and pink D-Ark from her jeans as well. As she stared at it, the memories of the events earlier in the day came rushing back: their mother taking them to 'T.J. Max', the Digital Field, the two girls and their partners, the fight with Mojyamon, Mark and herself almost getting creamed, Card Slashing, and the defeat of Mojyamon. It was all so intense. Diana turned herself into a sitting position and faced her brother.  
  
"Except for both our near-death experiences, yeah, it definitely ROCKED!" she said, grinning.  
  
Mark rolled his eyes. His sister was always like that. Cheetahmon hopped up and down on the bed.  
  
"We beat the digi-stuffing out of that guy," he said, bobbing up and down, "didn't ya just love it when I slammed right into that ape? I was the coolest!"  
  
Mark gave his partner a wry smile.  
  
"Right," he said, turning to Diana, "but I keep thinking about those girls. Where did they come from?"  
  
Diana shrugged as Cheetahmon continued to hop on the bed. Pegamon looked up at him.  
  
"How long are you going to do that?" she asked, watching him bounce.  
  
Cheetahmon didn't even slow down to reply.  
  
"Until I feel like stopping," he said, simply.  
  
Diana turned to him.  
  
"Just don't wreck my bed," she warned, then turned back to her brother, "and as for those girls, I dunno. But they really helped us out."  
  
Mark, still thinking about the events from earlier, nodded.  
  
"We all helped each other out," Mark commented, "but........." Mark folded his arms. "But who were they? And where are they now?

Millers' Residence – 10:30 AM  
  
"Aha! Found it!"  
  
When Gina and Lisa had gotten back into 'Books-A-Million', they acted as if nothing had happened, and retrieved the books that they had come for. When shopping was done, they had returned home so that their mother could get ready for company, which she was having over at 11:00. As soon as the sisters had deposited their tired partners in their bedrooms, Gina had shot off towards the kitchen. When Lisa had caught up with her, she found that her sister was looking through the 'Sprint Red Yellow Pages', in the front section, looking for.........  
  
"Renalds," Gina said, pointing to a page.  
  
Lisa went closer and looked over her sisters' shoulder. She sighed.  
  
"Sis, how do we know that this is the phone number for the kids that we met?" she asked.  
  
Gina picked up the phone, which was on the top left hand corner of the kitchen desk, which was sideways across from the counter. She glanced at her sister.  
  
"They're the only 'Renalds' in the book, sis," she stated, "who else could it be?"  
  
Lisa looked at the name and frowned.  
  
"Why do you want to get in touch with them so soon anyway?" she asked.  
  
Gina paused and turned to her sister.  
  
"We didn't get enough time to get to know them," she said, looking at the number, "I mean, if their was an emergency, and we needed help, who'd we call?"  
  
Lisa stared at her sister.  
  
"You make it sound as if another Digimon is gonna come and stomp on the house," she said, a slight indication of nervousness in her voice. She still wasn't too secure on the whole 'Digimon' factor.  
  
Gina shrugged.  
  
"Ya never know," she said, "and I just want to see if we can meet up for a chat."  
  
Lisa raised an eyebrow.  
  
"Chat?" she asked.  
  
Gina, who was about to dial, glanced at her sister.  
  
"Like I said, we should get to know them. They seem like nice people," said, frowning, "stop being so anti-social. If you want, I'll do the talking."  
  
Sighing, Lisa stepped back.  
  
"Go ahead," she stated, "this was 'your' idea."  
  
Gina smiled and began to dial.

Renalds' Residence – 10:33 AM  
  
Mark and Cheetahmon had retired back to Marks' room. It was a bit bigger than Diana's room. The bed was against the wall across from the door. Double pillows and a thick green comforter were laid out on top of his bed. Both his and Diana's bedroom walls were tan-brown, but while Diana's rug was peach, Marks' was dark green. A bureau was to the left of his bed against the wall. On it were Digimon action figures, from Agumon to Gallantmon. There was also a stack of 'Shonen Jump' magazines on the left side. To the right of his bed was his nightstand where his lamp, alarm clock, CD player, and 'Game Boy Color' were all crammed onto. On the left side of the bed was a window. On the same wall that the door was built into was a closet just like Diana's and it was covered with pictures of 'Digimon' and 'DBZ'. Mark didn't have a TV in his room like Diana; he didn't want one. He was currently lying on his stomach on top of his bed, reading a 'Shonen Jump' issue while Cheetahmon was just beginning to relax on the left side of his bed.  
  
Ring Ring! Ring Ring!  
  
Mark looked up from his manga and rolled off the bed. He managed to make it out of the doorway as the second ring chimed through the house.  
  
"I'll get it!" he called, running down the hall.  
  
"'Kay!" Diana replied from inside her room.  
  
His mother didn't reply. Mark, already to the phone, assumed that she was in the laundry room. He checked the 'caller ID' that was installed in the kitchen phone. It was a number that he didn't recognize.  
  
(Wonder who it is?) he thought, picking up the dark gray phone.  
  
"Hello?"  
  
"Hi, is this the Renalds residence?"  
  
Mark blinked. The voice was that of a girl, but it sounded familiar.  
  
"Um, yes it is," he replied.  
  
A pause.  
  
"Is, um, Mark Renalds there?" the caller asked.  
  
"Speaking," Mark replied.  
  
Another pause, a little longer this time, and then.........  
  
"So, how did you think of your first meeting with a Mojyamon went?" the caller asked.  
  
"Well, I'll admit I was........." Mark began, then stopped in shock, "w-wha-?"  
  
"Sorry, I just wanted to know if you were the same Mark that helped us fight off that wild Digimon," the caller said, apologetically.  
  
Marks' shock faded into simple surprise and realization.  
  
"Then, you're........."  
  
"Gina Miller. The same girl who you shook hands with."  
  
Mark blinked in surprise. No wonder the voice had sounded familiar. It was the same girl that saved his sister.  
  
"Wow! I mean, I-I..." Mark stuttered, but finally found what he was trying to get out, "I can't believe you actually found me – no, wait, that's not how it sounds-"  
  
A giggle came from the other line.  
  
"Relax already," Gina said, "I just wanted to meet the Tamers who helped us out. Last time we met, we didn't have a lot of time to talk."  
  
Mark relaxed and scratched the back of his head.  
  
"Oh, yeah," he said, "sorry if we seemed in a rush. My Mom would have freaked if she found out we were gone."  
  
"Yeah, my Mom's the same way."  
  
Mark leaned against the counter.  
  
"You mentioned 'meet'," he brought up, "as in.........get together?"  
  
Another pause.  
  
"Well, my Mom is having company over soon, and my sister and I are curious about the Tamers who helped us," Gina finally replied, "we wanted to visit if we could."  
  
Mark thought a moment.  
  
"Well, we live in 'Summerton South', and if you live across town-" Mark didn't have time to finish.  
  
"WOAH! You live THAT close?!!" Gina cried in shock.  
  
Mark winced, but was instantly curious about what she had just said.  
  
"'Close'?" he repeated, "where do you live?"  
  
"Across the street, a few houses down."  
  
Mark blinked in surprise.  
  
"Wow, that IS close," he said, "my Mom's gonna be busy later, but she doesn't mind if we have friends over. When should we meet?"  
  
From there, the two Tamers formed a schedule: as soon as Mrs. Millers' friends had arrived, Gina and Lisa would take their partners and bikes to 'Summerton South' and Mark would meet them at the gate with 'his' bike. Mark was more curious than ever now. Like Gina, he'd always wanted a chance to meet up with other Tamers ever since he met Cheetahmon and now it seemed like both were getting their wish. As soon as he got off the phone, he dashed back to his room, nearly slipping on the tiles, and stumbled onto his rooms' carpet. He went over to a resting Cheetahmon and nudged his friend a couple times before he woke up.  
  
"Huh? What's up, Mark?" he asked, drowsily.  
  
Mark smiled down at his partner.  
  
"We're gonna have company pretty soon," he said, excited.

Millers' Residence – 11:09 AM  
  
Mrs. Millers' friends arrived on time. They were two women from 'Indian Pines', another development down the street, and they were good friends of Mrs. Miller. After Gina and Lisa said their hellos, they dashed back to their rooms to inform their Digimon that they were ready to leave. Gankomon was excited about meeting new Digimon and their Tamers. Nekomon didn't really mind either. Since the adults had retreated into the kitchen, the sisters had no problem sneaking their partners outside. The girls' bikes were leaning against the wall out in the front porch, both built for the girls' age category. Gina's bike was a mix of pink, white, and purple while Lisa's was red and gold. Both had baskets in front and both were perfect for carrying the two cat Digimon.  
  
"So, what are these things again?" Gankomon asked, staring at the bikes in wonder.  
  
Gina smiled down at her partner.  
  
"They're bikes," she informed, scooping him up, "people use them for transportation."  
  
Lisa had already placed Nekomon in her bikes' plain-looking basket. The little lion stared at it, but said nothing.  
  
"You told Mom about this, right?" she asked, mounting her bike.  
  
Placing Gankomon in the white, flower printed basket on her bike, Gina nodded.  
  
"Yeah, I told her we were visiting Cassie down the road," she said, hopping onto her bike, "Mom didn't mind as long as we were back by dinner."  
  
Lisa nodded and the two girls got their bikes onto the driveway and rode out the gate.

Mark was excited about having other Tamers over. He'd always hoped that there would be others like there was on the show that he watched. He was mainly into Season 3, but he'd given the previous Seasons a chance. He thought the dub of Season 4 was a bit, well, disappointing, but he 'did' think the plot was good.  
  
(But they were just anime,) Mark thought as he fixed up his bedspread for the visitors who were about to arrive, (this is real!)  
  
Mark had always wanted action, not like the boredom of everyday life. But since the closest he got to action were the rides at 'Disney World', Mark never was satisfied with his normal life. Then, a week ago, his life changed..........

January 31, 2004 – Renalds' Residence – 3:10 PM  
  
Mark was tired when he walked into the house, as in completely exhausted, mainly because his Dad hadn't picked him and Diana up at the corner. He had to walk home, and his house was a long ways from the gate, while Diana visited a friend of hers a couple houses down. And he noticed when he came in that his mothers' car wasn't in the driveway either.  
  
(They must be at the hospital again,) he though, heading for his room, (I hope with better news.)  
  
Not to long ago, Mark and Diana's father had had an operation, a liver transplant to be exact. There, Mr. Renalds had to go in weekly to have check-ups and get special shots and medicine that helped with his transplant and his other ailment. Since it had turned into a daily thing by now, everyone was used to it, but Mark was hoping that his Dad would get better soon. He wasn't the same as before, always tired..........  
  
Mark entered his bedroom and tossed his black and gray book bag onto the floor by his bed. With a tired sigh, the sandy-haired boy flopped down, face first, onto his bed. Mark had done two tests today, had to run at the speed of light to catch his bus, and had, only a while ago, walked nearly half a mile to get to his house. Mark was definitely exhausted and was ready to take a small nap before the rest of his family came home, when he felt something sticking into his stomach. Rolling onto his back, Mark sat up to examine what he was lying on, thinking it was just a book or something. But it wasn't.  
  
Two objects were sitting in the middle of Marks' bed, where he had flopped down. One was a Card Holder; 4 ½ inches high and 2 ½ centimeters wide. It was brown and had a clasp in back and a weird symbol in front. It looked like the shape of a medieval shield, like the kind knights held in the old days. The next object was shaped like a square-circle with a U-shape on the bottom with two oval buttons side by side. A yellow circle was in the middle of the circle-square top with a square screen in its center. On top of the object was a yellow strap with a clasp on the tip, made for attaching it to something. And he noticed that there was a slot on the right side.  
  
Curious, Mark picked both objects up, and began to look them over. It looked very familiar to him. Both of the objects did. It was like he'd seen them before, somewhere.........

February 7, 2004 – Renalds' Residence – 11:10 AM  
  
"Mark? Hey, Mark?!"  
  
Mark snapped out of thought and looked down to see his partner staring up at him with big green eyes.  
  
"Huh?" he asked, dumbly.  
  
Cheetahmon cocked his head to one side.  
  
"I thought you said we were having company over?" he pointed out.  
  
Mark nodded.  
  
"Yeah, those girls, wh-?" Mark broke off his question as he suddenly realized what his partner was getting at, "oh, no! They're probably waiting for me at the gate by now!"  
  
Mark scrambled for the door, but stopped halfway out, and went back to put his sneakers on. Cheetahmon watched his partner in amusement.  
  
"And you guys call 'me' scatter-brained," he commented.  
  
Mark gave his partner a look as he finished tying his shoelaces.  
  
"Very funny," he muttered, "tell Diana to get ready. They should be here soon."  
  
Cheetahmon nodded as Mark ran out into the hall. There were no real worries about the Digimon being seen, seeing as the hallway had its own door (a design that their father put in). All Mark had to do was shut it, which he did. Quietly, he slipped out into the foyer. It was tiled and across from the white door was the first living room that their mother had insisted on putting in. It had three couches forming a U-shape that faced the door and olive-green carpets beneath them. On all of the couches was a collection of porcelain dolls that Mrs. Renalds had collected over the years. Behind the living room was glass window that showed the pool. Mark would always hear comments about how rich they were and how lucky they were to be wealthy.  
  
Mark had lost track of how many times he said they weren't rich.  
  
Mark quietly opened the door, snuck outside, and closed it behind him. With any luck, his Mom would think that he was in his room. He ran down the path, the driveway, and into the garage that was always left open in the daytime. He located his bike leaning on the left wall, opposite of Diana's. It was colored bronze with a black seat and handlebars. Mark brought it out into the driveway before he mounted it. In minutes, he was peddling down the road, towards the gate.  
  
(I hope I didn't keep them waiting,) he hoped, turning the corner that would lead him to the gate.  
  
He could see a couple figures outside the immense gate. As he drew closer, he identified them: two girls, one with shoulder-length brown hair and the other with chin-length hair colored a darker shade of brown. The girl with shoulder-length hair was riding on a pink, purple, and white bike, while the other girls' was red and gold. In the bike-basket of the tri-colored bike was what looked like a Gatomon, but instead of white fur and purple tufts, it had copper-orange fur with navy blue tufts. It's eyes weren't round and blue, but sharp and copper, and it was watching him approach the gate with impatience. The other Digimon in the other girls' bike instantly reminded Mark of 'Kovu' as a cub from 'The Lion King 2: Simba's Pride', only with fiery red fur, an orange tail tuft and round, navy eyes that seemed to stare through Mark. Both girls looked up at him as he came to a halt behind the gate. He stared at both of them.  
  
"Gina and Lisa Miller?" he asked.  
  
The girl with the boy Gatomon smiled.  
  
"Mark Renalds?" she returned.  
  
Mark smiled.  
  
(This is SO cool,) was all he could think.

After Mark helped the Miller sisters open the gate, he led them back to his house as the Digimon stared at all the houses.  
  
"Wow, I never knew there was so many of these 'house' things," Gankomon commented as the bikes turned the corner that led to Marks' house.  
  
"Yep, there are a bunch all around the world," Gina said, "our house isn't the only one."  
  
Lisa glanced ahead at Mark.  
  
"Are your parents' home?" she asked.  
  
Mark glanced over his shoulder at her.  
  
"Yeah, but knowing Mom, she's probably fixing and washing clothes," he said, turning his attention back to the road in front of him, "but she doesn't mind me and Diana having friends over."  
  
Mark led the girls into the driveway of his house and stopped his bike.  
  
"You can put your bike in the garage with mine and Diana's," he told the girls, getting off his bike.  
  
As the girls got off their bikes, Nekomon glanced at the Renalds' house.  
  
"It's nearly as big as the house that 'we' stay in," he commented, flatly.  
  
The Miller sisters looked at the house and realized he was right. It was nearly just as tall as the Millers' residence. Gina glanced at Mark, who was putting his bike away.  
  
"You've got a cool," she stated, politely, "is your family rich?"  
  
Mark sighed and scratched his head. Lisa elbowed her sister.  
  
"You shouldn't pry like that," she scolded, quietly, "it's rude."  
  
Gina was about to reply when Mark stepped in.  
  
"It's okay. A lot of people ask me that," he said, "but no, I'm not rich. Not really, anyway."  
  
Gina gave her sister a triumphant look. Gankomon looked up at Mark with curious brown-red eyes.  
  
"What's 'rich'?" he asked, curiously.  
  
Gina couldn't help but giggle while her sister rolled her eyes. Nekomon said nothing, he was still looking at the house. Mark, on the other hand, was just plain fascinated.

Mark led the girls and their partners up to the front door and slowly opened it. After checking to make sure his mother wasn't around, Mark stepped inside, and motioned the girls to come in. The minute both girls stepped inside, they stopped and stared at the houses inside. Gankomon and Nekomon were equally impressed, though Nekomon hardly showed it.  
  
"Woah, this place is even bigger inside," Gankomon stated in awe.  
  
Gina turned to Mark.  
  
"Are you 'sure' you're not rich?" she asked.  
  
Mark chuckled and shook his head.  
  
"Nah, Dad just overdid the design," he explained, and motioned over to the hallway door, "this is where my room and my sisters' room is."  
  
The girls followed him as he went over and opened the hallway door. Gina couldn't help but be amazed while Lisa just took everything in, calmly. Mark quickly closed the hallway door as soon as Gankomon and Nekomon stepped inside, and went over to his bedroom door.  
  
"Cheetahmon wanted to meet you first," he explained, "I hope you don't mind."  
  
Gina shook her head.  
  
"Not at all," she assured, "does that mean this' your room?"  
  
Mark nodded, a little embarrassed.  
  
"Yeah," he said, turning the doorknob, "Cheetahmon? I'm back."  
  
Without any warning, the floor flew open, and a yellow blur knocked the sandy-haired boy over. The Miller sisters and their partners watched as Cheetahmon covered his Tamers' face with digi-cat kisses.  
  
"Man, Mark, you've been gone for a long time! Almost as long as when you go to that school place!" Cheetahmon said in a happy frenzy, "why didn't ya take me with ya? I wanted to come! Oh well, you're back now. Are these the other Tamers?"  
  
Mark, with all his might, pushed the big rookie off of his stomach.  
  
"Ugh, yes these are them," he said, wiping his face with his forearm, "and what do you mean I've been gone a long time? I was only gone for five minutes or so."  
  
The cheetah Digimon shrugged.  
  
"So? I still missed you," he said, simply.  
  
Mark rolled his eyes while both sisters couldn't help but laugh. The third door on that side of the wall opened just then and a girl with a dirty blond ponytail walked out. Her blue eyes fell on the trio of Tamers.  
  
"Hey bro, I guess you were successful?" she asked, playfully.  
  
Mark gave his sister a look that most older brothers give their little sisters when they state the obvious, while Gina turned to the girl.  
  
"You're......Diana, right?" she asked.  
  
The girl nodded and smiled.  
  
"Yeah, and you're my hero," she said.  
  
Gina smiled at that. That was when a pink Pegasus with a blue mane and tail walked out of Diana's room and joined her partner in the hall. She looked up at the sisters and instantly recognized them.  
  
"Hey, you're the one who saved Diana," she said in realization.  
  
Gina nodded and Lisa looked over to Mark.  
  
"How long have you had your partners?" she asked, politely.  
  
Mark turned to her.  
  
"For about a week," he replied, "and you?"  
  
Lisa shrugged.  
  
"We just met them yesterday," she said, "but, it sorta feels longer."  
  
Diana smiled over at her.  
  
"We know what you mean," she said.  
  
Gankomon looked over at Pegamon.  
  
"What's it like living in someplace as big as this?" he asked the Pegasus.  
  
The small, flying horse gave him a shrug, which looked a little silly.  
  
"It's okay," she stated, "it's almost like living in a giant cave with lots of stuff inside."  
  
Cheetahmon looked in their direction.  
  
"And the food," he added, "don't forget about the food!"  
  
The Renalds kids rolled their eyes while Gina gave a chuckle. Lisa turned to Mark.  
  
"Have you ever run across any wild Digimon before this?" she asked, curious.  
  
Mark faced her and shook his head.  
  
"No," he said, "today makes it our first official fight."  
  
"And it was COOL!" Diana added.  
  
Mark rolled his eyes at his sister while Gina brought up her D-Arc.  
  
"When did you first get your D-Arcs?" she asked, curiously.  
  
Mark took his own D-Arc from his jeans and looked at it as well.  
  
"About a week ago," he explained, "Diana discovered hers when she got home from a friends house."  
  
"Yeah," Diana piped in, "and that night, we met Cheetahmon and Pegamon."  
  
Gina and Lisa both looked up, startled.  
  
"That's the same way it happened with us," Gina commented, a bit surprised at the similar circumstances  
  
Lisa looked at the siblings with a look of pure curiosity.  
  
"Just how exactly did you meet them?" she asked.  
  
The brother and sister turned to one another and Mark turned back to the sisters.  
  
"Well, it all started around 8:00 at night, last week," he began to explain, "our folks were next door, so we were alone in the house...

January 31, 2004 – Renald's Residence – 8:00 PM  
  
To be blunt, Mark was bored. Not only had today been one exhausting mess, but there was nothing relatively good to watch on TV. Nothing that interested him anyway. His parents had gone next door to celebrate their neighbors' birthday, a neighbor who had been their friend for four years. Mark was too tired to go and socialize for a change (not to mention the neighbors' dog didn't like him very much) and Diana had to do Biology homework. So, aside from his excuse, Mark also had to 'baby-sit' his sister. Mark didn't really mind as he sat in the second living room's couch, flipping through the channels out of pure boredom. Mark had done all of his homework earlier, so doing his homework was out of the question. With a sigh, Mark shut off the TV, got up, and headed for his room.  
  
(Might as well re-read by latest 'Shonen Jump' manga,) he thought to himself, (it would be nice if something exciting happened in this neighborhood for a change.)  
  
Beep! Beep!  
  
Mark looked up at the sound of the sudden beeping noise. On instinct, he went over to check the phone. He was a bit surprised when he saw that the phone wasn't the source of the sudden noise.  
  
(No new messages?) he though to himself, (then what-?)  
  
Beep! Beep!  
  
Mark looked up again, confused. After listening for another second or two, Mark followed the loud beeping noise...to his room. Mark's eyes widened when he realized that the strange beeping was coming from his own bedroom.  
  
(What's going on?) he thought as he approached his door, very confused, (I have nothing that beeps in my room. My alarm doesn't even beep.) He reached for the doorknob and turned it. (Maybe Diana left her cell phone on in my room.)  
  
But upon opening his bedroom door, he saw that it wasn't a cell phone that was creating the beeping noise. It was the strange device that he had left on the nightstand with the Card Holder. Surprised, Mark walked slowly over to the beeping, metallic object. Upon coming closer to it, he realized that the screen of the strange device was flashing blue every time it beeped.  
  
"What the-?" he whispered, stopping before the flashing object.  
  
For a while, he did nothing but stand and stare at the beeping device with a mixture of confusion and curiosity. Carefully, Mark reached down, and closed his fingers around the device. It didn't zap or sting his hand, so he figured it was safe to hold. He looked down at the flashing screen with a strange look on his face.  
  
(How odd,) he thought, turning the strange device over in his hand, (I wonder if this thing is supposed to do this?)  
  
"Mark!"  
  
Startled, Mark turned to see his sister in his doorway, looking a bit confused.  
  
"Sis? You okay?" he asked, noticing the odd look on her face.  
  
Diana shrugged.  
  
"Personally, I'm not really paying attention to how I'm feeling," she stated, holding up something in her left hand, "I'm too busy trying to figure out what this thing is doing."  
  
In her hand was another silver, round-square device, like the one Mark was holding. The only difference was it had a pink strap and a pink circle around the screen. Diana had found the device on her bed when she came home from her friends' house. Both she and Mark had been puzzled by it, but seeing as though the devices weren't doing anything out of the ordinary at that time, they didn't question their parents about them or anything.  
  
But now, they were DEFINITELY doing something out of the ordinary.  
  
"It won't stop beeping," Diana continued, eying her device, confused, "and every time I try and press one of the buttons, a list of words comes up."  
  
Mark stared at his sisters' device for a while before staring back at his own. He had no idea why they were beeping either, but something his sister had said made him curious about something. Looking at the two yellow buttons below the circled screen, Mark took a deep breath, and pressed the button on the right. The beeping stopped and the screen stopped flashing to reveal a word on the screen: Locate. Mark raised an eyebrow.  
  
(Locate?) he thought, more confused now than before, (locate what?)  
  
His curiosity getting the better of him, he pressed the button on the left. Without so much as a warning, a blue, holographic circle with a red arrow inside popped out of the screen.  
  
"HOLY COW!" Diana cried, jumping back nearly three feet.  
  
Mark almost dropped the device, but despite his shock, he got control of the emotions of fear that he was feeling now. He gazed at the circle and suddenly noticed that the red arrow had moved over to the left of the circle, towards the window. Turning, Mark stared at his window, wondering what the heck was happening. Diana had recovered from her shock and moved closer to her brother, keeping an eye on the strange device. After an internal debate, Mark headed for the window, and when he got in front of it, moved the pale curtain aside to look outside.  
  
Nothing was out of the ordinary. Marks' window faced the left side of the house. The street curved around it, leading to other houses in back of the development, but between it and the Renalds household was a big, open field with long grass and weeds. A house hadn't been built there yet and Mark doubted if anyone 'would' build one there. Across the field and on the other side of the curving road was a bunch of trees that served as a miniature forest. To the left of it, in an area clear of trees, was what appeared to be a house in the process of being built. A wooded fence was around the side of it, only allowing the front of the house to show. The scene almost looked creepy in the cloud-filled night, but Mark kept looking, trying to find what the strange device was pointing too.  
  
He soon found out.  
  
From behind the house in the woods across the street, a beam of white light shot up from behind the fence, and went up into the clouds. It happened so suddenly, Mark couldn't help but jump back from fear. Where had that light come from? Diana noticed her brothers' reaction and walked over beside him, peering out the window.  
  
"Hey bro, what's – WOAH!" Diana cried, scrambling back in alarm, "where did THAT come from!?"  
  
Mark shook his head in a confused gesture and watched as the light slowly faded away and a strange, magenta fog suddenly appeared just above the fence. Both children couldn't help but gawk at what just happened. After 10 seconds of staring in shock, curiosity got the better of Mark, and he ran to his closet, pulling out his green jacket.  
  
"W-what are you doing, Mark?" his sister asked, turning to him.  
  
The strange device, compass-like hologram still present, was gripped tightly in his hand as he turned to face his little sister with a tight smile.  
  
"I can't just stay here and do nothing but stare," he told her, "I'm going to see what that light was."  
  
With that, Mark started heading out the hallway door, and it was only then did his sister snap out of her surprise.  
  
"WHAT?!" she demanded, running after him, "are you crazy?! It could be some kinda nuclear radiation that did that, or something!"  
  
Mark rolled his eyes as he entered the foyer.  
  
"Sis, nuclear radiation, here?" he asked, free hand on the doorknob, "maybe in California somewhere, but not 'here'."  
  
Diana, still a bit nervous about the light, attempted one last time to stop her brother.  
  
"You know what they say, 'curiosity killed the cat'!" she snapped.  
  
Mark opened the door and gave his sister a smirk.  
  
"Well, I'm not a cat," he said, reassuringly, before stepping outside.  
  
The night wasn't cold, but it wasn't hot either. It had rained a while ago, so it was a bit humid with wetness in the air. Mark was a bit too preoccupied to care at the moment. He glanced down at the device. It still had the compass and the arrow was pointing towards the house. Taking a deep breath, Mark began his trek across the field. He hadn't gone five steps when he heard the door slam behind him.  
  
"Wait!"  
  
Mark, surprised, turned to see Diana running after him, her device in hand.  
  
"Diana?" Mark said in surprise, "I thought you were scared of that light?"  
  
His dirty blond-haired sister gave him a wry look before coming to a stop beside him.  
  
"I was nervous, not scared," she corrected, "and, I'll admit, I'm curious too."  
  
Mark raised an eyebrow as the two siblings began to head for the house and the fog.  
  
"Whatever happened to 'curiosity killed the cat'?" he asked.  
  
Diana gave him a sheepish look.  
  
"Well," she said, shrugging off what remained of her nervousness, "I never did buy that saying anyway."  
  
Both of them giggled a bit as they continued their trek. Luckily, despite the clouds, the moon was visible, and showed to way with help from light posts by the road. As they closed the distance between the house and themselves, coming to the road, both brother and sister couldn't help but feel their nervousness returning. What if it was something neither wanted to see? And yet, something seemed to compel them forward.  
  
After crossing the street and running up a side road, which led to the house, Mark and Diana looked around, wearily. The ground was mostly dirt with some cement here and there. Building materials were strewn around at random locations. The front, garage, and walls of the house were present, but the windows were still empty just like the houses interior, save a few rooms. Behind the house, what they both came to see, was the strange, pinkish-purple fog. For a while, neither sibling said anything.  
  
"So," Diana suddenly said, breaking the silence, "you want to go first?"  
  
Mark stared at the fog for a bit before turning to his sister.  
  
"Ladies first," he insisted, smirking.  
  
Diana rolled her eyes at him.  
  
"No, age before beauty," she insisted back.  
  
Mark found himself chuckling. Even in a moment like this, he and his sister were acting like they always were.  
  
"Okay, how about this?" Mark proposed, "how about we 'both' go in together?"  
  
Diana pretended to think for a minute before nodding.  
  
"Sure, why not?" she said. She then reached over and gripped Marks' wrist with the hand that wasn't holding the odd device. "But just to make sure you don't run off, I'll just hang onto you, just in case."  
  
Mark gave his sister a sly smile.  
  
"Suuuuure," he drawled, as they both headed into the fog.

Digital Field, 8:15 PM  
  
Stepping into the fog was almost like stepping into a dark room, only in this case instead of pitch-black it was bright pink on the inside of the fog. When the two's vision finally cleared, Mark and Diana found themselves in the back of the house, where there was grass beneath them instead of dirt. Technically, they were in a small clearing. After looking around a bit, Mark looked down at the device. The compass-like hologram no longer had the red arrow – it now had four. They were in a square pattern, indicating to the area in front of him and his sister.  
  
"So, now what do we do?" Diana asked, looking cautiously around the odd fog.  
  
Mark looked in front of him and, after thinking his decision over for a few seconds...  
  
"Hello?!" he called out, startling Diana, "is anybody here?!"  
  
Instead of silence, like he expected...  
  
"Yep! And we're starving!" replied an energetic male voice.  
  
Diana grabbed hold of Marks' arm, as the sandy blond stared ahead of him in a mixture of emotions, mostly surprise and curiosity.  
  
"What do you mean 'we'?" asked a high, feminine voice, "I feel fine."  
  
"'You' do, but 'I' don't!" the other voice insisted.  
  
Diana loosened her grip on her brothers' arm a bit while Mark gave an odd look at the voices ahead of them.  
  
(They argue like we do, whoever they are,) he thought, before returning to his calling.  
  
"Who's there?!" he called.  
  
"Just us!" the male voice replied.  
  
(Big help,) Mark thought, sighing.  
  
"Can you come out of the fog please?!" Diana called out, much to her brothers' surprise, "we'd like to see you!"  
  
A pause, then...  
  
"Sure!" the female voice answered cheerfully.  
  
In only a few moments, the sounds of soft footsteps reached the Renalds siblings' ears before two shapes began to emerge from the fog. Diana gasped at the sight before them as the figures stopped only two feet in front of her and her brother. Marks' eyes and mouth both went wide, but his gaping mouth slowly began to turn up into a smile when he realized what they were...

Renalds' Residence – 11:30 AM  
  
"...and after we introduced each other and calmed down a bit, Diana and I snuck Cheetahmon and Pegamon into the house," Mark finished.  
  
Everyone was in the kitchen now, seeing as how Cheetahmon had complained after half of the story was told that he was hungry, and everybody was eating ice cream. Even the Digimon, who were at the bottom of their respective partners chairs, were eating the cold, sweet treat. The Miller sisters had been listening to everything that the other Tamers had said. Gina was amazed and was smiling by the time the story was over.  
  
"Wow, and you've been Tamers since then?" she asked, staring eagerly at Mark.  
  
Mark shrugged as he moved clumps of vanilla ice cream around in his bowl with his spoon.  
  
"Yeah, pretty much," he replied, "it's not really different than our normal life. It's just that now we have two Digital Monsters in our life."  
  
Cheetahmon, who had his small, cat-like snout right down to the bottom of the bowl, looked up at his partner.  
  
"Yeah, same goes for us having humans in 'our' lives," he added, licking ice cream off his nose.  
  
Lisa looked up from her ice cream, next to her sister, and looked over to Diana.  
  
"Did your partners mention anything about searching for someone?" she asked, "'cause that's what Nekomon and Gankomon told us when we first met them."  
  
Diana stopped with her spoon halfway to her mouth and put it back down in the bowl.  
  
"Well, come to think of it, yeah," she said after thinking for half a minute, "but we didn't think much of it at the time."  
  
Mark nodded and faced the girls.  
  
"They 'did' mention that they were looking for two humans, and when they asked us if we were the ones, I said that we were," he explained, "I don't really know why I said it but I did. It wasn't until after we had gotten home with our Digimon that I gave it any real thought. But, like the appearance of our D-Arcs, I didn't think much of it at the time. I was too psyched about becoming a Digimon Tamer."  
  
Diana rolled her eyes as she swallowed her ice cream.  
  
"Yep, that's my bro for you," she said, sarcastically, "always thinking."  
  
Mark gave his sister a look while Gankomon looked up from his ice cream  
  
"This stuff is really good," he commented, licking his lips, "what's it called?"  
  
Before Gina could reply, Cheetahmon beat her to it.  
  
"Mark called it 'Vanilla Ice Cream'," he said in 'a-matter-of-fact' voice.  
  
Gankomon blinked and stared down at the white lumps.  
  
"There's no ice in here," he commented, looking back at Cheetahmon, "and what's 'vanilla'?"  
  
Cheetahmon stopped licking his muzzle and tried to think of a good answer, but he couldn't figure one out at all. Seeing the spotted cats' dilemma, Pegamon looked up from her bowl, and responded instead.  
  
"We dunno," she stated, "maybe it's what makes this stuff white."  
  
Gankomon looked satisfied for the moment and went back to gobbling down the cold treat. Nekomon, who had kept quiet during the entire debate, was still licking up the ice cream in his bowl. None of the Digimon were aware, however, that their Tamers were watching them with amusement.  
  
"Well, I guess this means that the Digimon get along fine," Lisa commented, indicating to the digital cats and winged pony.  
  
Gina, finishing up the remains of her ice cream, flashed her sister a smile.  
  
"That's 'cause we're all Tamers," she stated, "why wouldn't they get along?"  
  
Lisa rolled her eyes at her younger sisters' cheerful tone, seeing as how she, herself, felt embarrassed being here in the first place. She wasn't a very social person. And, to be perfectly honest, she actually felt nervous right now. She was always nervous about talking in front of others while her sister would mouth-off anywhere.  
  
"By the way," Gina said, turning back to Mark and Diana, "one of the main reasons' we wanted to come over was because-"  
  
At the sound of a door opening and closing elsewhere in the house, Mark held up a hand to silence her.  
  
"It's my Mom," he said in a low voice, before turning quickly to Cheetahmon, "quick, hide guys!"  
  
Cheetahmon nodded and both he and Pegamon dashed into the second living room to the right of the kids and ran behind one of the couches. Upon hearing the sound of approaching footsteps, Gina decided to follow suit.  
  
"You and Nekomon better hide too, Gankomon," she whispered to her partner.  
  
The copper-orange cat nodded and both he and Nekomon ran to join the other two just as a women with gray-brown hair tied up in a ponytail came in.  
  
"Whew, it's hot out-" Mrs. Renalds began, until she noticed her kids and two strangers in the kitchen, "oh, hello there."  
  
Gina and Lisa smiled politely in unison.  
  
"Hi," both replied.  
  
Mark smiled at his Mom and stood up.  
  
"Mom, this was the company I told you about before," he said, indicating to the two girls, "this is Gina and Lisa Miller."  
  
Both girls nodded at Mrs. Renalds who nodded back in greeting.  
  
"Of course," she said in a German accent, "sorry if I didn't come and greet you when you first arrived. I'm doing laundry. I just came in to get a drink."  
  
The four kids nodded and watched as the older women got a glass from its proper spot and filled it up with cold water from the refrigerator. Sighing with relief, Mark began to sit down. As she turned to leave, however, something caught Mrs. Renalds' eye.  
  
"Mark? Diana? Why are there two bowls of ice cream on the floor?" she asked, confused.  
  
Mark froze in mid-sit while the girls simply stopped moving, Diana with her spoon in front of her mouth. Mrs. Renalds had seen Cheetahmons' and Gankomons' ice cream bowls. Nekomons' and Pegamons' were hidden on the other side of the table, the base hiding them from view.  
  
"Uuuuuuuhhhh........." was all Mark could really say.  
  
"They're for Oreo and Missy," Diana quickly said, "they were in here a little while ago."  
  
Mark gave his mother a smile while Gina and Lisa said nothing at all as they waited for Mrs. Renalds response.  
  
"Oh," she said, knowingly, "alright then, just don't give them too much like you did last time, okay?"  
  
"Okay!" everyone said, in unison.  
  
With a nod, Mrs. Renalds headed out of the kitchen. It was only until they heard the back door close did the girls let out a sigh of relief and Mark collapse in his chair.  
  
"Man, that was close," Mark breathed, turning to his sister, "nice one, sis."  
  
Diana grinned.  
  
"What would you ever do without me?" she asked, playfully, putting the spoon carrying ice cream into her mouth.  
  
Mark gave her a playful punch in the shoulder while Lisa asked a pretty obvious question.  
  
"Who's Oreo and Missy?" she asked.  
  
Diana gave her a victory smile.  
  
"Our two, gray tabby kittens," she explained, "and we always like to give them ice cream."  
  
Mark turned to the couch where the Digimon were hiding.  
  
"Okay guys, the coast is clear," he called out.  
  
Immediately, the four Digimon came trotting out from behind the couch.  
  
"It was stuffy behind that weird rock," Gankomon commented, walking over to Gina's chair.  
  
His Tamer gave him a smile out of amusement.  
  
"Silly, that's a couch, not a rock," she explained to him, "people sit on it when they're tired."  
  
Gankomon blinked at that while Pegamon shook her mane out.  
  
"We hide behind it more than we sit on it," she stated, lowering her head to finish up her ice cream.  
  
Mark gave a small chuckle before turning back to the girls.  
  
"That's one of the down parts about being a Tamer," he commented, leaning back in his chair, "we always have to hide Cheetahmon and Pegamon whenever our folks are around."  
  
Lisa shrugged at that.  
  
"I doubt neither of our parents will be thrilled if they discovered our Digimon," she pointed out.  
  
Mark nodded in agreement. Gina decided to continue with what she was going to say.  
  
"Anyway, the other reason we came over was basically to ask you guys about, well, becoming a Team," she said, putting as blunt as she could.  
  
Mark and Diana turned to her.  
  
"A Team? What do you mean?" Diana asked.  
  
Gina thought for a second before continuing.  
  
"It's just that before this morning, Lisa and I thought we were the only Tamers around," she explained, "and after what happened at 'Books-A- Million' today, I'm starting to worry about Wild Digimon appearing. So, I figured that all the Tamers should meet to discuss what we need to do next. Y'know, as a Team? That's how it was on TV."  
  
Lisa rolled her eyes.  
  
"Sis, we just met them," she said, turning to her sister, "they may not want to-"  
  
"Why shouldn't we?"  
  
Lisa blinked and turned to Mark, who had spoken. He continued at her questioning gaze.  
  
"If that Mojyamon had somehow gotten free of the fog, there would have been serious trouble," he told the short-haired brunette, "and two Digimon couldn't take him down. You guys needed four. So, I agree with what your sister says. There's strength in numbers after all."  
  
Gina flashed her sister a grin, which made her sigh.  
  
"You'll have to excuse my sister," Gina said to Mark and Diana, "she isn't very social with other kids."  
  
Lisa gave her sister a look while Nekomon looked up from his ice cream.  
  
"I agree with Cheetahmon's Tamer," he stated, flatly, "Mojyamon would have endangered people if he escaped the Digital Field. We need to unite and fight."  
  
Diana raised an eyebrow.  
  
"Hey, that sounds kinda catchy," she said, smiling at the rhyme, "'Unite and Fight'. Hey, that could be our motto!"  
  
Gina looked excited upon hearing that while Lisa shook her head in defeat.  
  
"Sis, this isn't Girl Scouts," Mark said after rolling his eyes, "this is serious. What if 'more' Wild Digimon appear?"  
  
Gina's face suddenly grew thoughtful.  
  
"And what if there's more Digimon Tamers like us?" she brought up.  
  
No one said anything for the moment. Then Gankomon spoke up.  
  
"If more Wild Digimon try and come here, I'll knock-em all flat!" he proclaimed, bringing up his fists.  
  
Hearing that, everyone but Nekomon laughed, even Lisa.  
  
"That's something I gotta see," Diana said, calming down.  
  
Gina shrugged.  
  
"Hey, he beat Mojyamon didn't he?" she asked.  
  
"He had been weakened to begin with," Nekomon stated.  
  
Gankomon shot the red lion cub a look.  
  
"Who asked you?!" he snapped, causing more laughs.  
  
"Well, at least we have comic relief down pat," Diana said.  
  
Gina nodded, still grinning from her partners' outburst.  
  
"Yeah," she agreed, "definitely."  
  
Lisa sighed as she finished up her ice cream.  
  
(Well, so long normal life,) she thought, grumpily.  
  
Mark shook his head out of pure disbelief. This was happening. It was really happening! They were a Team! Just like in the TV show!  
  
(This is SO cool!) he thought with a wide grin

J&P Auto's – Midnight  
  
After the new team of Tamers had settled on the notion that they would stick together and keep an eye out for Wild Digimon, the Miller sisters returned home with their partners. Thankfully, their mother was so busy with her friends, she had forgotten to call the house Gina told her they'd be staying at to see how they were. And that was a relief. After that, the day for the four Tamers went by like a regular afternoon: the kids mingled with family while the Digimon hid in their partners' rooms, eating snacks that the kids brought them, and sharing dinner. All and all, the day went by smoothly for the four Tamers and their partners, and all eight were ready for a good nights' rest.  
  
But for another pair, that night at midnight was when things livened up.  
  
J&P Auto's on 3721 SE Maricamp Rd was closed at that hour. The small, short rectangular building was sitting on the right hand side of the road, a dirt road leading up to it, and a line of multiple vehicles on the beige buildings' left and right, held in by a simple wire fence. To its left was a giant billboard advertising something about 'Persistence' while on the right side, a few feet away, was a Baptist Church that was almost hidden by the trees around and behind it. It was an Auto Dealer that was obviously a little old and it was lucky if someone stopped by every week. But it stayed open and it was only a ways away from the Miller house.  
  
And it was about to get an unwanted customer.  
  
Without any real warning, a beam of light shot up from the ground, at the very edge of the dirt road entrance. From the base of the pillar of light, circular waves of purple energy spread out from it, though they caused no damage to what they passed over. Within minutes, a strange mist began to spread from the light. By the time the light had faded away, a magenta- colored fog had covered the line of cars in front of the Dealers, as well as a small fraction of the street. Being midnight, hardly anyone was out to witness this strange sight. Except for one person who had just ridden up on a jet black bicycle and a shadowy figure that suddenly appeared on the nearest tree.

Digital Field – Two minutes after midnight  
  
Within the bright, pinkish mist, between the small part of the road that got stuck it the fog and the line of cars, something emerged. It was 5' 11" tall and walked on two, knee-bent legs. Its skin was a very dark shade of green, so dark it was nearly black. Its body was covered with fiery red armor. Its feet bore two-toed fiery armor, as did its hands, although they had multiple points around the side rather than fingers. It wore a red, yellow-lined mask with two horns, the same color as its skin, sticking out from behind the mask, while vertical red mandibles poked out of the mouth area and dark eyes gazed around, cautiously. But the eye-catching feature on the strange creature was two butterfly-like wings on its back colored red, yellow, and orange. It was currently observing its surroundings and was making a low growling noise at the sight of the cars and trucks to its left. Then, the sound of footsteps reached its ears as it looked in front of it in time to see a figure in black emerge from the fog.  
  
It was a boy. He looked around age 12 with fair skin and jet-black hair that was in a low ponytail, stopping between his shoulder blades. He was wearing a black jacket over a dark blue shirt with blue denim jeans and black boots. He was gazing at the strange creature, violet-lined shades over his eyes. After examining it for a while, the boy casually reached up, and removed his sunglasses. His dark blue eyes narrowed as the creature before him let out a grunt of disdain.  
  
"Looks like we might have a challenge tonight," the boy said with a calm, mature voice.  
  
Suddenly, a dark form materialized besides him. It was a half a foot taller than the boy, stood on two legs, and was fox-like in appearance. To be blunt, it looked exactly like Renamon from 'Digimon: Season 3', only there were some obvious differences. Instead of having bright yellow fur, this one had dark fur that looked black, until a step into the light revealed that it was actually dark violet. The fur in front, as well as the point at the end of its tail, was a silver color, as was the puff of fur on its chest. It had three fingers and paw-like toes with a black claw on the tip of each. On its arms were gloves, like Renamon's, only these were azure blue and, instead of bearing a yin yang on the backs, they bore an eye with a violet iris. The symbols on its thighs were like Renamon's, only blue and were vertical in direction. The tips of its pointed ears were silver and, instead of Renamon's sapphire blue eyes, this one had garnet red eyes. Lastly, on its forehead was the drawn symbol of an eye, many shades lighter than its fur.  
  
The boy wasn't startled at all by the sudden appearance of the humanoid fox. He gave it a sideways glance, eyes impassive, watching as it calmly looked over what would be its prey. When the boy saw the fox's eyes lock onto the creature, he reached with his left hand to his right side, and pulled out a D-Arc with a dark purple ring and strap. He held it up and watched as a holographic, blue circle automatically popped out of the square screen within the ring with the beasts' picture. Along with the picture was information to go with it.  
  
Shadramon  
  
Level: Armor  
  
Type: Insectoid Digimon  
  
Attribute: Virus  
  
Attack(s): Flash Buster, Psychic Wave  
  
Information: 'A very aggressive Digimon that lives in tropical forests and desert areas. Very territorial.'  
  
With that, the hologram was sucked back into the screen. The boy lowered his violet and silver D-Arc and looked back at the now identified Digimon, Shadramon.  
  
"In that case," he said in a casual tone, "we'd better get started. Don't want to make it wait for us."  
  
The Shadramon slowly stepped forward, its masked face turned to the human boy in front of it, and it narrowed its dark eyes in a threatening manner. The boy narrowed his blue eyes once more and flicked them to his right, at the dark violet Renamon.  
  
"Kagemon?" he muttered, both quietly and expectantly.  
  
The fox nodded slightly and said only three words in a deep, masculine voice.  
  
"I'm on it."  
  
Then, in the blink of an eye, the humanoid fox, Kagemon, dashed forward, legs hitting the ground almost too fast to see. The Shadramon hardly had time to blink as the dark violet fox slammed into its chest, elbow first. The Shadramon let out a growl as it was forced back, but quickly braced itself to a stop. It let out a hiss-like roar at its attacker and thrust its left, armored claw at the fox's face. Kagemon did an impressive back- flip to evade the thrust, rebounded with his clawed hands, and pushed himself feet first at his opponent, both feet/paws impacting with its stomach. The Shadramon wasn't prepared for that move; it lost its balance and fell backwards. Kagemon flipped onto his hind legs and watched as the fire-armored Digimon struggled to stand. A ways behind him, the boy gave the fallen Digimon a smirk.  
  
"Having problems?" he drawled, folding his arms.  
  
The Shadramon bolted upright and narrowed its black eyes at the boy and then at Kagemon. With a couple flaps of its wings, it went from being on the ground, to being in the air in seconds. It glared down at both the boy and Kagemon, who now had assumed a fighting stance.  
  
"Insolent human! And you!" it snapped, in a growl-like male voice, eyes fixing again on Kagemon, "you ally yourself with this human?! Traitor!" Shadramon spread it/his wings wide and they instantly began to glow a yellow-white color. "Psychic Wave!"  
  
Without any warning, except for Shadramon's echoing voice, circles of light began to ripple from the fire insects wings, and headed straight for Kagemon. The dark fox narrowed his garnet eyes as the rings began to head in his direction. In one fluid motion, Kagemon flipped backwards just as the rings struck the area where he had been standing. Because it was technically an attack meant for the mind, the light didn't disturb the ground. Kagemon watched the rings vanish into the soil, lowering his ears in boredom. His opponent noticed this action and his anger begin to rise.  
  
"Rrrrrrrrrrr!" Shadramon growled, before shooting down towards the fox.  
  
Kagemon tensed and drew back his right claw before leaping up to meet the Armor Digimon. As they closed the distance between each other, Kagemon's claws on his right hand began to glow an indigo shade. Shadramon noticed this, but by then, it was too late.  
  
"Hyper Claw!" Kagemon cried, slashing forward with his glowing claws.  
  
Shadramon didn't react in time and the claws ripped through the armor on his chest and forced him back onto the ground, landing on his back again with a loud thud. Kagemon nimbly landed on his feet, regarding his opponent with cold eyes.  
  
"Was that it?" he demanded suddenly, sounding upset, "was that your best? How disappointing. I expected much better from a higher level Digimon."  
  
Shadramon didn't like this retort at all and with a snarl he rose from the ground, eyes fixed on Kagemon.  
  
"I'm not finished with you yet!" he snapped, drawing back his right fist, "I'll make you beg for mercy, traitor!"  
  
The fist that Shadramon had drawn back was starting to glow a fiery orange, with embers gathering around the sides. Aiming for his assailant, Shadramon let the attack loose.  
  
"Flash Buster!"  
  
He thrust his glowing fist outward, causing a ball of orange fire the size of a basketball to go flying through the air, heading straight for Kagemon. The fox wasted no time. A swift as all of his other movements, he leapt into the air, did a front-flip over the fireball, and landed as the fireball continued towards the Auto Dealer building. It slammed straight into a green 'Ford Explorer' that was parked right in the line of cars, hitting and burning its trunk, scattering glass from the back windows everywhere. The boy frowned slightly and stepped back a bit to avoid stray bits of glass. He shot a look at his partner.  
  
"Watch it, Kagemon!" he snapped, "let's 'try' not to trash the area this time."  
  
The fox merely gave his Tamer a simple nod before dodging another fireball, this one hitting the ground, and making a rather noticeable crater. He landed to the right of Shadramon, but soon had too dodge again as the armored insectoid drew back his arm, charged his fist, and then released another fireball, this one almost hitting the road. As Kagemon landed, he tried to run at his opponent from the front. But Shadramon quickly charged his fist for another attack and released a fireball right in front of Kagemon, sending him flying backwards. But the fox recovered in midair and flipped onto his feet. He glared at Shadramon who glared back with defiance. Then the tall rookie gave his partner a glance.  
  
"Connor?" he asked, expectantly.  
  
The boy only nodded and, with his right hand, reached across to his let side, and unfastened the clasp of his Card Holder. He quickly pulled out a card and looked down at it. On it was a red disk with an 'A' on the top right side. Bringing his D-Arc horizontally in front of his face and using his pointer and index fingers, the boy slid the card through the slot. Light shot out of the slot as the card's information was scanned.  
  
"Card Slash!" he cried, whipping his right hand to the side, taking the card with him, "Speed Activate!"  
  
Kagemon was surrounded by a brief purple aura before he suddenly burst forward in a low run.  
  
"Fool! Don't you ever learn?" Shadramon mocked, drawing back his arm, "Flash Buster!"  
  
The fireball sailed at Kagemon, but the fox was too fast for it this time. He darted under the fireball and delivered a fierce roundhouse kick to Shadramon's face. With a surprised roar, the Armor Digimon stumbled back, but before he could even get his balance, Kagemon rushed him again, kneeing him in the gut.  
  
"Gaaaaah!" cried Shadramon, flying back a few feet before crashing to the ground.  
  
Kagemon relaxed from his fighting position and folded his arms, almost like how ninjas do.  
  
"Who's begging for mercy now?" he asked, coolly.  
  
With eyes that had practically become black fire, the Shadramon reared up, and, with a powerful flap of his wings, charged at Kagemon with his left arm drawn back. But Kagemon had other ideas. He leapt up into the air, drew in his knees, and folded his arms across his silver-furred chest. Curled into a ball, he flipped backwards, and, as soon as his face was facing forward, shifted his arms into a folded position with his legs still tucked in. A soft fuchsia light expanded outwards in a circle between the area where his arms met. Kagemon fixed his eyes on the advancing Digimon as he released the finishing blow.  
  
"Needle Rain!"  
  
Quite suddenly, he whipped his arms out to the sides, causing the fuchsia light to darken and contract into a dark lavender sphere that was the size of a volleyball. As soon as the sphere had formed, Kagemon brought his hands back, and held them, parallel, on either side of the sphere, while he extended his legs and spread them into what appeared to be a midair standing position. All this seemed to happen in one fluid movement. The minute his hands came to a stop near the sphere, the ball of lavender light pulsed for a second before releasing a squall of multiple, pin-thin needles of purple energy that flew at Shadramon.  
  
The Armor Digimon was still in mid-leap and unfortunately couldn't stop in time. The hapless Digimon let out a pain-filled cry as the thousands of needles struck and penetrated his armor, delivering multiple damage all over his exhausted body. Within seconds, Shadramon's body began to break up into small particles of red data. As they did so, Kagemon, who was still in midair, spread his arms out again as a dark purple aura surrounded him. Almost like a magnet, the data particles began to be drawn in towards the aura, turning blue as they did so. As the particles of data were absorbed into the humanoid fox's body, his Tamer watched him with a cruel smirk.  
  
"That's right, Kagemon," he whispered, "download all of the data. Make sure you get it all. Pretty soon, we'll become so strong, we'll be unstoppable."

Somewhere down Gina and Lisa's street, on the left hand side – 15 min. after midnight  
  
Sleepily, Jonathan cracked an eye open at the sound of a low growl. Sitting up in a slouched, drowsy position, he fumbled on his nightstand until he located his round-square glasses. Putting them on, he turned around towards the sound of the growl, and immediately found the source. In the darkness, he could just barely make out the shape of a furry figure staring outside of his bedroom window, snarling.  
  
"What's wrong, Inumon?" the sleepy, yet curious boy asked the figure.  
  
The furry figure stopped growling and turned to the boy with narrow, violet eyes.  
  
"I dunno," it admitted in a masculine whisper, "I thought I felt something."  
  
Jonathan raised a weary eyebrow at his partner before gazing out the window for a while before turning back to him.  
  
"It was probably just a bad dream," he reassured, taking his glasses off, and putting them back on the nightstand, "it's too late at night to dwell on it, though. I say we discuss it in the morning."  
  
The small, furry creature nodded as it trotted over to the foot of his Tamers' bed. By the time Jonathans' head touched the pillow, he fell asleep instantly.

Pronouncing and Meaning  
  
Shah-drah-mon – Sha- is short for 'shadow' and dra- is short for 'dragon'.  
  
Kah-geh-mon – 'Kage' is Japanese for 'shadow'.  
  
In-new-mon – 'Inu' is Japanese for 'dog'.  
  
Geez! It took forever to write that! Not only did school get in the way, but I've also had writers block. What can I say? My mind can't handle work and creativity at the same time. Anyway, I hope this fic was good enough for everyone, I think it came out as I wanted...I hope. Anyway, the Miller sisters and the Renalds kids have become a team, but who are these two other boys with Digimon? You'll have to tune in next time to find out.


End file.
